= operator in java

Question

can somebody explain me why it's possible to do:

String s = "foo";

how is this possible without operator overloading (in that case the "=")

I'm from a C++ background so that explains...

Answer 1

It is an assignment operator in java which is used to assign the value to the declared type, where no operator overloading is required. Even in c++

Answer 2

It's not as easy as this, but think of all objects as pointers.

Answer 3

In this case there is no overloading. The java piece that differs from C++ is the definition of "" - The java compiler converts anything in "" into a java.lang.string and so is a simple assignment in your example. In C++ the compiler converts "" into a char const * and so needs to have a conversion from char const* to std::string.

Answer 4

This assigns a simple literal of type String to s

In Java Strings are immutable, if you need to define a constant value you would use the final keyword.

Answer 5

The API says:

"Strings are constant; their values cannot be changed after they are created. String buffers support mutable strings. Because String objects are immutable they can be shared. For example:

     String str = "abc";

"is equivalent to:

     char data[] = {'a', 'b', 'c'};
     String str = new String(data);