Why does == not work for String comparison in java? [duplicate]

new String("test") always creates a new object on the heap.

So in:

String a = new String("test"); String b = new String("test");

Java creates two different String objects, even though the text is the same.
Therefore:

a == b // false

because == compares references, and a and b point to different objects.

equals() returns true because String overrides it to compare content, not memory location.