When to use intern() on String literals

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This is a technique to ensure that CONSTANT is not actually a constant.

When the Java compiler sees a reference to a final static primitive or String, it inserts the actual value of that constant into the class that uses it. If you then change the constant value in the defining class but don’t recompile the using class, it will continue to use the old value.

By calling intern() on the “constant” string, it is no longer considered a static constant by the compiler, so the using class will actually access the defining class’ member on each use.

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