Odd String Behaviour

[UnusedUsername]

I'm leaving some details of the code out but those details shouldn't matter.

code:

String expectedValue = ... String output = myClass.toString(); System.out.println(myClass.toString().length()); //prints 0 System.out.println(output.length()); //prints a number, e.g. 72 System.out.println(expectedValue.length()); //prints a number, e.g. 72 System.out.println(output.equals(expectedValue)); //prints true System.out.println(myClass.toString().equals(expectedValue)); //prints false

The output are in the comments, but I have no idea why they are like that. Can someone please explain?

[HeavenAgain]

I believe this have something to do with "comparing address/references" rather than comparing what you acually see.
example could be

code:

String s4 = new String ("restful"), s5 = new String ("restful"), s6 = new String ("peaceful"), s7 = s4, s8 = "restful", s9 = "restful"; System.out.println (s4.equals (s5)); // true System.out.println (s4.equals (s6)); // false System.out.println (s4 == s5); // false System.out.println (s4 == s7); //true System.out.println (s4 == s8); // false System.out.println (s8 == s9); // true

hope this help, but one thing i dont get in your code is the myClass.toString().length(), seems to me, if that gives you 0 then output.length() should give you 0 too
weird

[Ultrahex]

myClass.toString() should be equal to your pointer/reference, so its something like test$myclass@3e25a5
myClass.toString().length() should be the length of it. as in the reference. (which i get 19)
output.length() = 19 also ... (i dont understand how you got 0 in that one case, maybe variations between sdk/jre's)
also are you running Ready To Program Java? (which we dont recommend, but yes it sucks if you have to use for school)

... but anyhow try this code: (since maybe extra brackets will fix for no good reason)

Java:

System.out.println((myClass.toString()).length()); System.out.println(output.length()); System.out.println(expectedValue.length()); System.out.println(output.equals(expectedValue)); System.out.println((myClass.toString()).equals(expectedValue));

[UnusedUsername]

After debugging, I found the problem is within the toString() method. Thanks for the help.