String.equals versus ==

Use the string.equals(Object other) function to compare strings, not the == operator.

The function checks the actual contents of the string, the == operator checks whether the references to the objects are equal. Note that string constants are usually "interned" such that two constants with the same value can actually be compared with ==, but it's better not to rely on that.

if (usuario.equals(datos[0])) {
    ...
}

NB: the compare is done on 'usuario' because that's guaranteed non-null in your code, although you should still check that you've actually got some tokens in the datos array otherwise you'll get an array-out-of-bounds exception.

It's good to notice that in some cases use of "==" operator can lead to the expected result, because the way how java handles strings - string literals are interned (see String.intern()) during compilation - so when you write for example "hello world" in two classes and compare those strings with "==" you could get result: true, which is expected according to specification; when you compare same strings (if they have same value) when the first one is string literal (ie. defined through "i am string literal") and second is constructed during runtime ie. with "new" keyword like new String("i am string literal"), the == (equality) operator returns false, because both of them are different instances of the String class.

Only right way is using .equals() -> datos[0].equals(usuario). == says only if two objects are the same instance of object (ie. have same memory address)

Update: 01.04.2013 I updated this post due comments below which are somehow right. Originally I declared that interning (String.intern) is side effect of JVM optimization. Although it certainly save memory resources (which was what i meant by "optimization") it is mainly feature of language

equals() function is a method of Object class which should be overridden by programmer. String class overrides it to check if two strings are equal i.e. in content and not reference.

== operator checks if the references of both the objects are the same.

Consider the programs

String abc = "Awesome" ;
String xyz =  abc;

if(abc == xyz)
     System.out.println("Refers to same string");

Here the abc and xyz, both refer to same String "Awesome". Hence the expression (abc == xyz) is true.

String abc = "Hello World";
String xyz = "Hello World";

if(abc == xyz)
    System.out.println("Refers to same string");
else
    System.out.println("Refers to different strings");

if(abc.equals(xyz))
     System.out.prinln("Contents of both strings are same");
else
     System.out.prinln("Contents of strings are different");

Here abc and xyz are two different strings with the same content "Hello World". Hence here the expression (abc == xyz) is false where as (abc.equals(xyz)) is true.

Hope you understood the difference between == and <Object>.equals()

Thanks.

Instead of

datos[0] == usuario

use

datos[0].equals(usuario)

== compares the reference of the variable where .equals() compares the values which is what you want.

Let's analyze the following Java, to understand the identity and equality of Strings:

public static void testEquality(){
    String str1 = "Hello world.";
    String str2 = "Hello world.";

    if (str1 == str2)
        System.out.print("str1 == str2\n");
    else
        System.out.print("str1 != str2\n");

    if(str1.equals(str2))
        System.out.print("str1 equals to str2\n");
    else
        System.out.print("str1 doesn't equal to str2\n");

    String str3 = new String("Hello world.");
    String str4 = new String("Hello world.");

    if (str3 == str4)
        System.out.print("str3 == str4\n");
    else
        System.out.print("str3 != str4\n");

    if(str3.equals(str4))
        System.out.print("str3 equals to str4\n");
    else
        System.out.print("str3 doesn't equal to str4\n");
}

When the first line of code String str1 = "Hello world." executes, a string \Hello world." is created, and the variable str1 refers to it. Another string "Hello world." will not be created again when the next line of code executes because of optimization. The variable str2 also refers to the existing ""Hello world.".

The operator == checks identity of two objects (whether two variables refer to same object). Since str1 and str2 refer to same string in memory, they are identical to each other. The method equals checks equality of two objects (whether two objects have same content). Of course, the content of str1 and str2 are same.

When code String str3 = new String("Hello world.") executes, a new instance of string with content "Hello world." is created, and it is referred to by the variable str3. And then another instance of string with content "Hello world." is created again, and referred to by str4. Since str3 and str4 refer to two different instances, they are not identical, but their content are same.

Therefore, the output contains four lines:

Str1 == str2

Str1 equals str2

Str3! = str4

Str3 equals str4

You should use string equals to compare two strings for equality, not operator == which just compares the references.

It will also work if you call intern() on the string before inserting it into the array. Interned strings are reference-equal (==) if and only if they are value-equal (equals().)

public static void main (String... aArguments) throws IOException {

String usuario = "Jorman";
String password = "14988611";

String strDatos="Jorman 14988611";
StringTokenizer tokens=new StringTokenizer(strDatos, " ");
int nDatos=tokens.countTokens();
String[] datos=new String[nDatos];
int i=0;

while(tokens.hasMoreTokens()) {
    String str=tokens.nextToken();
    datos[i]= str.intern();            
    i++;
}

//System.out.println (usuario);

if(datos[0]==usuario) {  
     System.out.println ("WORKING");    
}