String representation in Java

String representation in Java

A string is a char[] containing a series of UTF-16 code units, an int offset into that array, and an int length.

I think the source of your confusion is the idea that

String s

creates a string that is assigned into.

It does not. It creates space for a string reference. Assigning copies references around but does not modify the objects to which those references refer.

You should also be aware that

new String(s)

doesnt really do anything useful. It merely creates another instance backed by the same array, offset, and length as s. There is very rarely a reason to do this so it is considered bad practice by most Java programmers.

Java double quoted strings like my string are really references to interned String instances so foo is a reference to the same String instance regardless of how many times it appears in your code.

Strings are immutable in Java, so when you do a println, a new String is created by the toUpperCase (and later garbage collected).

String representation in Java

If I get what you want to know. The String object is represented by the double quotes . This is called the String literal.