Immutability of Strings in Java

Question

Consider the following example.

String str = new String();

str  = \"Hello\";
System.out.println(str);  //Prints Hello

str = \"Help!\";
System.out.println(s         


        

Answer 1

Though java tries to ignore it, str is nothing more than a pointer. This means that when you first write str = "Hello";, you create an object that str points to. When you reassign str by writing str = "Help!";, a new object is created and the old "Hello" object gets garbage collected whenever java feels like it.