Compare two objects in Java with possible null values

Question

I want to compare two strings for equality when either or both can be null.

So, I can\'t simply call .equals() as it can contain null<

Answer 1

This is what Java internal code uses (on other compare methods):

public static boolean compare(String str1, String str2) {
    return (str1 == null ? str2 == null : str1.equals(str2));
}