Equality (==) operator in Java with Examples

== operator is a type of Relational Operator in Java which is used to check for relations of equality. It returns a boolean result after the comparison and is extensively used in looping statements as well as conditional if-else statements.

Syntax:

LHS value == RHS value

But, while comparing these values, three cases arise generally:

Case 1: When both LHS and RHS values are primitive
This is most simple among the cases. As a primitive data is stored in the stack memory, in this case, the actual value of both the sides are fetched from the stack memory and compared. It returns true, if they both are equal, else false is returned.

Syntax:

Actual value == Actual value

Example:

// Java program for using == operator 
  
import java.io.*; 
  
public class GFG { 
    public static void main(String[] args) 
    { 
  
        // Declaring primitive values 
        int a = 4; 
        int b = 4; 
        int c = 5; 
  
        // Comparing a and b using == operator 
        System.out.println("Are " + a 
                           + " and " + b 
                           + " equal? "
                           + (a == b)); 
  
        // Comparing b and c using == operator 
        System.out.println("Are " + b 
                           + " and " + c 
                           + " equal? "
                           + (b == c)); 
    } 
} 

Output:

Are 4 and 4 equal? true
Are 4 and 5 equal? false

Case 2: When one of LHS and RHS value is a primitive and the other is reference
In this scenario, for the primitive side, the actual value is taken for comparison from the stack memory. But for the reference side, when an array is declared and initialized, the data is stored in the heap memory and the reference pointer in the stack memory. So all that is in the stack memory is the memory address.

Syntax:

Actual value == Address value
    OR
Address value == Actual value

So when the comparison between a primitive value and a reference value is taken, the program doesn’t compile and throws an error:

Compilation Error in java code:-

prog.java:20: error: incomparable types: int and int[]
                           + (a == b));
                                ^
1 error

This is because the value for the primitive side is easily fetched from the stack memory, but for the reference side, the value cannot be fetched, as the value is in heap memory. Hence the error.

Example:

// Java program for using == operator 
  
import java.io.*; 
  
public class GFG { 
    public static void main(String[] args) 
    { 
  
        // Declaring primitive value 
        int a = 4; 
  
        // Declaring reference value 
        int[] b = { 1, 2, 3, 4 }; 
  
        // Comparing a and b using == operator 
        System.out.println("Are " + a 
                           + " and " + b 
                           + " equal? "
                           + (a == b)); 
    } 
} 

Case 3: When both of the LHS and RHS value are reference
In this scenario, for both the sides, when an array is declared and initialized, the data is stored in the heap memory and the reference pointer in the stack memory. So both the variables, their address is checked. If both the variables point to the same memory address, then this operator returns true. Else it returns false.

Syntax:

Address value == Address value

Example:

// Java program for using == operator 
  
import java.io.*; 
  
public class GFG { 
    public static void main(String[] args) 
    { 
  
        // Declaring reference value 
        int[] a = { 1, 2, 3, 4 }; 
        int[] b = { 1, 2, 3, 4 }; 
        int[] c = b; 
  
        // Comparing a and b using == operator 
        // Though they both have the same value 
        // the output will be false because 
        // they both have a different address in the memory 
        System.out.println("Are " + a 
                           + " and " + b 
                           + " equal? "
                           + (a == b)); 
  
        // Comparing b and c using == operator 
        // Though they both have the same value 
        // the output will be true because 
        // they both have same address in the memory 
        System.out.println("Are " + b 
                           + " and " + c 
                           + " equal? "
                           + (b == c)); 
    } 
} 

Output:

Are [I@232204a1 and [I@4aa298b7 equal? false
Are [I@4aa298b7 and [I@4aa298b7 equal? true

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