The Thing About Strings

[MUSIC] 0:00 Hi. 0:04 I'm Craig and I'm a developer. 0:05 Now we've all been there. 0:07 We think we understand the basics of a programming language and 0:08 then we encounter a line of code that blows our mind. 0:11 And it makes us question everything we thought we knew up until that point. 0:14 Well a huge culprit of that sort of experience is strings in Java. 0:18 Strings have several characteristics about them that, when combined, 0:23 can definitely go cross-eyed with confusion. 0:26 And you'll find yourself not alone in your confusion. 0:28 Hitting the search engines, you'll find hundreds of thousands of questions about 0:30 them and why they behave the way they do. 0:34 I thought that this format would be a good way to go and 0:35 explore why strings seem to be so mysterious. 0:39 And try to demystify and 0:42 expose the common misunderstandings that happen when we use string in our code. 0:43 Are you ready? 0:46 Let's dive in. 0:48 Okay. So I've written a little program here 0:50 called Thing.java. 0:52 And it's gonna help us explore some concepts about strings. 0:53 Now I've added a method here called explore. 0:57 And it takes an assumption about what we are going to be exploring and 1:00 an expression. 1:03 The expression is expected to always be true. 1:04 It will generate a result and let us know if our assumption is correct. 1:07 So let's get right into some of those explorations. 1:11 We have explored equality a little bit already. 1:13 And we know that when we want to compare primitives together we can use the double 1:16 equal sign. 1:19 So let's make a couple primitives. 1:20 So we'll have int firstNumber equals 12 and int secondNumber equals 12. 1:22 Hey, let's go ahead and call our explorer method. 1:30 That's what it looks like. 1:32 We say primitives use double equals. 1:33 Okay, and then the expression that we wanna say, 1:39 wanna say is firstNumber use double equals to the secondNumber. 1:41 All right, well let's just run this and 1:47 make sure that our explorer method's working. 1:49 So we'll say clear and then javac. 1:51 We compile Thing.Java, and then we're gonna run it. 1:53 Cool. 1:59 So we get a yea. 2:00 So we know that it's working. 2:00 So that's primitives, but what about objects? 2:02 Let's create two brand new objects exactly the same way. 2:04 Now since we didn't change anything, they must be equal, right? 2:07 So, let's make two new objects. 2:11 We'll say Object, firstObject equals new Object. 2:13 And secondObject equals new Object. 2:17 Okay, so let's explore that. 2:26 Well let's say, explore objects work just like primitives. 2:28 So we should be able to use the double equals, right? 2:36 [BLANK_AUDIO] 2:38 Let's run that. 2:43 Okay, and we got a what. 2:45 you're assumption is incorrect. 2:47 Our first what. 2:49 So objects work a little bit different. 2:50 When we create an object, the variable represents an object reference. 2:52 Now you can use double equals for objects, but what that's saying is that 2:56 the object references are actually referring to the same object. 3:00 Let's explore that. 3:05 So, first of all, let's fix our exploration statement here, 3:05 our assumption, and let's say, Objects, references use double equals to check 3:08 if they refer to the same object in memory. 3:16 It's gonna wrap seemingly equal objects are not equal. 3:21 So we can actually use the not equals sign. 3:28 So let's do that. 3:31 I know, let's go ahead and make a new object that refers to the first object. 3:33 So we'll just say Object, the sameObject equals, and 3:38 we'll just literally put the object reference in there. 3:43 So now let's ex, let's do another exploration. 3:47 Let's say, let's say explore object references 3:49 must refer to the same object to use double equals. 3:54 So, firstObject equals sameObject. 4:02 Let's go ahead and run that and see. 4:05 There we go, two YAYs. 4:10 So this holds true for all objects. 4:11 Now the thing to remember is this, 4:13 strings are objects, everything inherits from objects. 4:15 So double equals only works if the variable is referring to the same object. 4:19 So you might have seen some double equals seemingly work for strings. 4:24 Let's explore that just a bit. 4:28 We'll make a new string, firstString this equals, [INAUDIBLE] my name and 4:30 we'll say, String secondString is equal to Craig. 4:37 And let's just go ahead and we'll say explore 4:42 strings are objects and work like objects. 4:47 So therefore, they're two separate objects, so they're not the same. 4:53 So we'll say firstString is not equal to secondString. 4:56 Let's go ahead and run that. 5:05 And we get a what. 5:10 Huh, how could those two be equal? 5:11 Aren't they two completely different objects? 5:13 What is the deal? 5:15 I thought I understood how this works, and now I'm not so sure. 5:17 Ok, so 5:20 the good news here is you're not going crazy, those are actually the same object. 5:20 So here's the thing, when you create a string like that, you know, 5:25 putting it in double quotes? 5:27 We're creating what is known as a string literal. 5:29 Now since strings are immutable which means, if you remember, 5:32 they can't be changed, the compiler does some tricks to optimize. 5:35 Since it knows the string won't change it just creates a single instance of that 5:40 string and makes all variables refer to that single instance. 5:43 It keeps these special references in a special place in memory called 5:47 the string pool. 5:51 So it's essentially like we saw in the previous object equality, right? 5:52 They're pointing to the same thing. 5:55 So let's fix our exploration here. 5:56 String literals are actually referring 5:59 to the same object, all right. 6:05 So at compile time that becomes the same object. 6:11 So we're gonna put double equals there. 6:13 Okay. 6:15 And let's add a new one that uses a dynamic string, 6:16 one that isn't there at compile time. 6:18 So you can kind of imagine this as input coming in from the user. 6:20 Now a handy way to make sure that we're creating a unique string is 6:24 by using its constructor that actually takes a string. 6:27 So let's take a look at that. 6:30 So let's say, string differentString is equal to a new String. 6:32 They have the same, what seems like to be the same value, so let's do this. 6:41 All right, this exploration string objects 6:45 that contain the same characters but 6:51 point to different objects cannot use double equals. 6:55 So let's prove that really quick. 7:03 FirstString does not equal a differentString. 7:05 Okay, so let's check those assumptions. 7:13 Awesome, those are both YAY. 7:18 So, one final trick that you might see used is a process called string interning. 7:20 You can actually take a user imputed string and add it to the same string pool, 7:25 and you do that by using a method on stings called intern. 7:30 So let's explore that, just for a quick second. 7:33 So let's add a string called anotherString. 7:36 And we use that same constructor method, okay. 7:40 And let's make a new assumption and we'll say string interning 7:47 adds to the same String Pool where literals live, 7:53 so you get back the same reference, if it exists. 8:00 Okay, so we can say anotherString and 8:06 if we do .intern is equal, now we can use double equals. 8:11 Let's go ahead and make sure that that works. 8:18 Awesome. 8:22 So because you almost always are checking object equality and 8:25 not concerning yourself with object reference equality, 8:28 this is why you almost always should use the equals method, like this. 8:31 [BLANK_AUDIO] 8:34 And this is true of all objects, so 8:40 all objects should use equals to check equality. 8:43 So we'll say firstString equals differentString. 8:48 And you remember different string was the one that was created with the new. 8:55 So see differentString was created with the new string, Craig, and 9:01 the first string was a literal. 9:04 So they're two separate, they're in, they're in different memory pools. 9:06 Let's just make sure that worked. 9:09 YAY. 9:12 So how does that equals method work? 9:14 Well for strings, 9:16 it must check that every single character is the same in the other string. 9:16 So the way this works is that string has overridden the equals method 9:21 on this class definition. 9:24 Now I have added a link in the teacher's notes about how you might want to go about 9:25 writing your own equals method in your own classes. 9:29 All right, let's review the output of your exploration here together one more time. 9:31 So primitives use double equals. 9:36 Object references use double equals to check if they refer to the same object in 9:38 memory, seemingly equal objects are not equal. 9:42 Object references must refer to the same object to use double equals. 9:46 So that's the only time you should use double equals. 9:49 Now string literals are actually referring to the same object. 9:52 Remember they go into the string pool together. 9:56 String objects that contain the same characters but 9:58 point to different objects can not use double equals. 10:01 String interning adds to the same string pool where literals live. 10:04 So you can get back the same reference, if it exists of course. 10:08 And, all objects should use equals to check for equality, and 10:11 you can write your own. 10:15 So I hope this knowledge will arm you, 10:16 as you come up against confusing encounters with strings. 10:18 And help remind you that you are, in fact, not going crazy. 10:21 So there you go. 10:27 I hope that cleared things up for you and 10:28 if nothing else it should give you something to refer back to 10:30 if you do in fact end up thinking you're losing your mind about strings. 10:33 If you like this format and 10:37 would like to see more like this please speak up in the forum. 10:38 And we'll tackle some more of the more nuance problems that 10:40 all we developers encounter from time to time. 10:43 As always, your suggestions are very welcome and 10:46 really help to shape what we're building together here. 10:48 Thanks for hanging out, and see you soon. 10:51