Java中字符串比较方法equals()和equalsIgnoreCase()的区别

1. equals()

equals( )是比较两个字符串是否相等，它的一般表达式如下：

/**
     * Compares this string to the specified object.  The result is {@code
     * true} if and only if the argument is not {@code null} and is a {@code
     * String} object that represents the same sequence of characters as this
     * object.
     *
     * @param  anObject
     *         The object to compare this {@code String} against
     *
     * @return  {@code true} if the given object represents a {@code String}
     *          equivalent to this string, {@code false} otherwise
     *
     * @see  #compareTo(String)
     * @see  #equalsIgnoreCase(String)
     */
    public boolean equals(Object anObject) {
        if (this == anObject) {
            return true;
        }
        if (anObject instanceof String) {
            String anotherString = (String)anObject;
            int n = value.length;
            if (n == anotherString.value.length) {
                char v1[] = value;
                char v2[] = anotherString.value;
                int i = 0;
                while (n-- != 0) {
                    if (v1[i] != v2[i])
                        return false;
                    i++;
                }
                return true;
            }
        }
        return false;
    }

看这段代码前，我们有必要先了解一下字符串本身。字符串是一个比较特殊的对象。它之所以特俗是因为Java会在内存中为String类型的对象开辟一个空间，我们叫它串池。字符串对象创建之后会放到串池中。

串池有一个特点就是，对于相同对象，串池中只存储一份。那么问题是，串池会把什么样子的字符串对象看作是相同的对象呢？

String a = "abc";和String  b = "abc";对于这样的类型声明方式（不是new出来的），串池会把他们看作是相同的字符串对象。所以呢，在串池中只会存储一份。变量 a and b只是两个引用罢了。

对于String只要用new关键字new出来的，都是一个独立的对象。

下面看看上面这段代码，String是对equals方法进行了重写。第一步用了两个字符串的“==”判断，“==”判断的是两个字符串的内存地址，只要不是串池中唯一的自己比自己都会返回 false。所以它是对两个引用做的的比较，判断他们是否指向统一内存地址。

接着下面

while (n-- != 0) {
                    if (v1[i] != v2[i])
                        return false;
                    i++;
                }

下面是对字符串的内容进行比较，也就是对两个String对象的比较。

注意：

1.对于"=="如果基于基本数据类型的变量，则是直接比较其存储的“值”是否相等。如果作用于引用类型的变量，则比较的是所指向的内存地址是否相同。

2. 对于equals方法，它不能作用于基本类型的变量，如果没有对equals进行重写则比较的是引用变量指向的内存地址。

2. equalsIgnoreCase()

执行忽略大小写的比较，当比较两个字符串时，它会认为A-Z和a-z是一样的。

 /**
     * Compares this {@code String} to another {@code String}, ignoring case
     * considerations.  Two strings are considered equal ignoring case if they
     * are of the same length and corresponding characters in the two strings
     * are equal ignoring case.
     *
     * <p> Two characters {@code c1} and {@code c2} are considered the same
     * ignoring case if at least one of the following is true:
     * <ul>
     *   <li> The two characters are the same (as compared by the
     *        {@code ==} operator)
     *   <li> Applying the method {@link
     *        java.lang.Character#toUpperCase(char)} to each character
     *        produces the same result
     *   <li> Applying the method {@link
     *        java.lang.Character#toLowerCase(char)} to each character
     *        produces the same result
     * </ul>
     *
     * @param  anotherString
     *         The {@code String} to compare this {@code String} against
     *
     * @return  {@code true} if the argument is not {@code null} and it
     *          represents an equivalent {@code String} ignoring case; {@code
     *          false} otherwise
     *
     * @see  #equals(Object)
     */
    public boolean equalsIgnoreCase(String anotherString) {
        return (this == anotherString) ? true
                : (anotherString != null)
                && (anotherString.value.length == value.length)
                && regionMatches(true, 0, anotherString, 0, value.length);
    }



 /**
     * Tests if two string regions are equal.
     * <p>
     * A substring of this {@code String} object is compared to a substring
     * of the argument {@code other}. The result is {@code true} if these
     * substrings represent character sequences that are the same, ignoring
     * case if and only if {@code ignoreCase} is true. The substring of
     * this {@code String} object to be compared begins at index
     * {@code toffset} and has length {@code len}. The substring of
     * {@code other} to be compared begins at index {@code ooffset} and
     * has length {@code len}. The result is {@code false} if and only if
     * at least one of the following is true:
     * <ul><li>{@code toffset} is negative.
     * <li>{@code ooffset} is negative.
     * <li>{@code toffset+len} is greater than the length of this
     * {@code String} object.
     * <li>{@code ooffset+len} is greater than the length of the other
     * argument.
     * <li>{@code ignoreCase} is {@code false} and there is some nonnegative
     * integer <i>k</i> less than {@code len} such that:
     * <blockquote><pre>
     * this.charAt(toffset+k) != other.charAt(ooffset+k)
     * </pre></blockquote>
     * <li>{@code ignoreCase} is {@code true} and there is some nonnegative
     * integer <i>k</i> less than {@code len} such that:
     * <blockquote><pre>
     * Character.toLowerCase(this.charAt(toffset+k)) !=
     Character.toLowerCase(other.charAt(ooffset+k))
     * </pre></blockquote>
     * and:
     * <blockquote><pre>
     * Character.toUpperCase(this.charAt(toffset+k)) !=
     *         Character.toUpperCase(other.charAt(ooffset+k))
     * </pre></blockquote>
     * </ul>
     *
     * @param   ignoreCase   if {@code true}, ignore case when comparing
     *                       characters.
     * @param   toffset      the starting offset of the subregion in this
     *                       string.
     * @param   other        the string argument.
     * @param   ooffset      the starting offset of the subregion in the string
     *                       argument.
     * @param   len          the number of characters to compare.
     * @return  {@code true} if the specified subregion of this string
     *          matches the specified subregion of the string argument;
     *          {@code false} otherwise. Whether the matching is exact
     *          or case insensitive depends on the {@code ignoreCase}
     *          argument.
     */
    public boolean regionMatches(boolean ignoreCase, int toffset,
            String other, int ooffset, int len) {
        char ta[] = value;
        int to = toffset;
        char pa[] = other.value;
        int po = ooffset;
        // Note: toffset, ooffset, or len might be near -1>>>1.
        if ((ooffset < 0) || (toffset < 0)
                || (toffset > (long)value.length - len)
                || (ooffset > (long)other.value.length - len)) {
            return false;
        }
        while (len-- > 0) {
            char c1 = ta[to++];
            char c2 = pa[po++];
            if (c1 == c2) {
                continue;
            }
            if (ignoreCase) {
                // If characters don't match but case may be ignored,
                // try converting both characters to uppercase.
                // If the results match, then the comparison scan should
                // continue.
                char u1 = Character.toUpperCase(c1);
                char u2 = Character.toUpperCase(c2);
                if (u1 == u2) {
                    continue;
                }
                // Unfortunately, conversion to uppercase does not work properly
                // for the Georgian alphabet, which has strange rules about case
                // conversion.  So we need to make one last check before
                // exiting.
                if (Character.toLowerCase(u1) == Character.toLowerCase(u2)) {
                    continue;
                }
            }
            return false;
        }
        return true;
    }

regionMatches 的基本定义是：regionMatches(int firstStart, String other, int otherStart, int len)

表示从当前字符串的firstStart位置开始，取一个长度为len的子串；然后从另一个字符串other的otherStart位置开始也取一个长度为len的子串，然后比较这两个子串是否相同，如果这两个子串相同则返回true，否则返回false。

我们看到的上面这个方法是对regionMatches方法的重载。比较方式基本相同，就是多了一个Boolean类型的参数，用来确定比较的时候是否忽略大小写。当ignoreCase为true表示忽略大小写。