因为对象的默认值是null，所以String的默认值也是null；但它又是一种特殊的对象，有其它对象没有的一些特性。
2. new String()和new String(“”)都是申明一个新的空字符串，是空串不是null；
3. String str=”kvill”；
String str=new String (“kvill”);的区别：
在这里，我们不谈堆，也不谈栈，只先简单引入常量池这个简单的概念。
常量池(constant pool)指的是在编译期被确定，并被保存在已编译的.class文件中的一些数据。它包括了关于类、方法、接口等中的常量，也包括字符串常量。
看例1：
String s0=”kvill”;
String s1=”kvill”;
String s2=”kv” + “ill”;
System.out.println( s0==s1 );
System.out.println( s0==s2 );
结果为：
true
true
首先，我们要知道Java会确保一个字符串常量只有一个拷贝。
因为例子中的s0和s1中的”kvill”都是字符串常量，它们在编译期就被确定了，所以s0==s1为true；而”kv”和”ill”也都是字符串常量，当一个字符串由多个字符串常量连接而成时，它自己肯定也是字符串常量，所以s2也同样在编译期就被解析为一个字符串常量，所以s2也是常量池中”kvill”的一个引用。
所以我们得出s0==s1==s2;
用new String() 创建的字符串不是常量，不能在编译期就确定，所以new String() 创建的字符串不放入常量池中，它们有自己的地址空间。
看例2：
String s0=”kvill”;
String s1=new String(”kvill”);
String s2=”kv” + new String(“ill”);
System.out.println( s0==s1 );
System.out.println( s0==s2 );
System.out.println( s1==s2 );
结果为：
false
false
false
例2中s0还是常量池中”kvill”的应用，s1因为无法在编译期确定，所以是运行时创建的新对象”kvill”的引用，s2因为有后半部分new String(“ill”)所以也无法在编译期确定，所以也是一个新创建对象”kvill”的应用;明白了这些也就知道为何得出此结果了。
4. String.intern()：
再补充介绍一点：存在于.class文件中的常量池，在运行期被JVM装载，并且可以扩充。String的intern()方法就是扩充常量池的一个方法；当一个String实例str调用intern()方法时，Java查找常量池中是否有相同Unicode的字符串常量，如果有，则返回其的引用，如果没有，则在常量池中增加一个Unicode等于str的字符串并返回它的引用；看例3就清楚了
例3：
String s0= “kvill”;
String s1=new String(”kvill”);
String s2=new String(“kvill”);
System.out.println( s0==s1 );
System.out.println( “**********” );
s1.intern();
s2=s2.intern(); //把常量池中“kvill”的引用赋给s2
System.out.println( s0==s1);
System.out.println( s0==s1.intern() );
System.out.println( s0==s2 );
结果为：
false
**********
false //虽然执行了s1.intern(),但它的返回值没有赋给s1
true //说明s1.intern()返回的是常量池中”kvill”的引用
true
最后我再破除一个错误的理解：
有人说，“使用String.intern()方法则可以将一个String类的保存到一个全局String表中，如果具有相同值的Unicode字符串已经在这个表中，那么该方法返回表中已有字符串的地址，如果在表中没有相同值的字符串，则将自己的地址注册到表中“如果我把他说的这个全局的String表理解为常量池的话，他的最后一句话，“如果在表中没有相同值的字符串，则将自己的地址注册到表中”是错的：
看例4：
String s1=new String("kvill");
String s2=s1.intern();
System.out.println( s1==s1.intern() );
System.out.println( s1+" "+s2 );
System.out.println( s2==s1.intern() );
结果：
false
kvill kvill
true
在这个类中我们没有声名一个”kvill”常量，所以常量池中一开始是没有”kvill”的，当我们调用s1.intern()后就在常量池中新添加了一个”kvill”常量，原来的不在常量池中的”kvill”仍然存在，也就不是“将自己的地址注册到常量池中”了。
s1==s1.intern()为false说明原来的“kvill”仍然存在；
s2现在为常量池中“kvill”的地址，所以有s2==s1.intern()为true。
5. 关于equals()和==:
这个对于String简单来说就是比较两字符串的Unicode序列是否相当，如果相等返回true;而==是比较两字符串的地址是否相同，也就是是否是同一个字符串的引用。
6. 关于String是不可变的
这一说又要说很多，大家只要知道String的实例一旦生成就不会再改变了，比如说：String str=”kv”+”ill”+” “+”ans”;
就是有4个字符串常量，首先”kv”和”ill”生成了”kvill”存在内存中，然后”kvill”又和” “ 生成 ”kvill “存在内存中，最后又和生成了”kvill ans”;并把这个字符串的地址赋给了str,就是因为String的“不可变”产生了很多临时变量，这也就是为什么建议用StringBuffer的原因了，因为StringBuffer是可改变的
By the way,关于 String.intern() 在实际中的应用，我在tomcat的源码中找到了一个地方用到了，如下：
/*
* Copyright 1999,2004-2005 The Apache Software Foundation.
*
* Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
* you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
* You may obtain a copy of the License at
*
* http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
*
* Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
* distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
* WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
* See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
* limitations under the License.
* ====================================================================
*
* This software consists of voluntary contributions made by many
* individuals on behalf of the Apache Software Foundation and was
* originally based on software copyright (c) 1999, International
* Business Machines, Inc., http://www.apache.org. For more
* information on the Apache Software Foundation, please see
* <http://www.apache.org/>.
*/
package org.apache.jasper.xmlparser;
/**
* This class is a symbol table implementation that guarantees that
* strings used as identifiers are unique references. Multiple calls
* to <code>addSymbol</code> will always return the same string
* reference.
* <p>
* The symbol table performs the same task as <code>String.intern()</code>
* with the following differences:
* <ul>
* <li>
* A new string object does not need to be created in order to
* retrieve a unique reference. Symbols can be added by using
* a series of characters in a character array.
* </li>
* <li>
* Users of the symbol table can provide their own symbol hashing
* implementation. For example, a simple string hashing algorithm
* may fail to produce a balanced set of hashcodes for symbols
* that are <em>mostly</em> unique. Strings with similar leading
* characters are especially prone to this poor hashing behavior.
* </li>
* </ul>
*
* @author Andy Clark
* @version $Id: SymbolTable.java 306179 2005-07-27 15:12:04Z yoavs $
*/
public class SymbolTable {
//
// Constants
//
/** Default table size. */
protected static final int TABLE_SIZE = 101;
//
// Data
//
/** Buckets. */
protected Entry[] fBuckets = null;
// actual table size
protected int fTableSize;
//
// Constructors
//
/** Constructs a symbol table with a default number of buckets. */
public SymbolTable() {
this(TABLE_SIZE);
}
/** Constructs a symbol table with a specified number of buckets. */
public SymbolTable(int tableSize) {
fTableSize = tableSize;
fBuckets = new Entry[fTableSize];
}
//
// Public methods
//
/**
* Adds the specified symbol to the symbol table and returns a
* reference to the unique symbol. If the symbol already exists,
* the previous symbol reference is returned instead, in order
* guarantee that symbol references remain unique.
*
* @param symbol The new symbol.
*/
public String addSymbol(String symbol) {
// search for identical symbol
int bucket = hash(symbol) % fTableSize;
int length = symbol.length();
OUTER: for (Entry entry = fBuckets[bucket]; entry != null; entry = entry.next) {
if (length == entry.characters.length) {
for (int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
if (symbol.charAt(i) != entry.characters[i]) {
continue OUTER;
}
}
return entry.symbol;
}
}
// create new entry
Entry entry = new Entry(symbol, fBuckets[bucket]);
fBuckets[bucket] = entry;
return entry.symbol;
} // addSymbol(String):String
/**
* Adds the specified symbol to the symbol table and returns a
* reference to the unique symbol. If the symbol already exists,
* the previous symbol reference is returned instead, in order
* guarantee that symbol references remain unique.
*
* @param buffer The buffer containing the new symbol.
* @param offset The offset into the buffer of the new symbol.
* @param length The length of the new symbol in the buffer.
*/
public String addSymbol(char[] buffer, int offset, int length) {
// search for identical symbol
int bucket = hash(buffer, offset, length) % fTableSize;
OUTER: for (Entry entry = fBuckets[bucket]; entry != null; entry = entry.next) {
if (length == entry.characters.length) {
for (int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
if (buffer[offset + i] != entry.characters[i]) {
continue OUTER;
}
}
return entry.symbol;
}
}
// add new entry
Entry entry = new Entry(buffer, offset, length, fBuckets[bucket]);
fBuckets[bucket] = entry;
return entry.symbol;
} // addSymbol(char[],int,int):String
/**
* Returns a hashcode value for the specified symbol. The value
* returned by this method must be identical to the value returned
* by the <code>hash(char[],int,int)</code> method when called
* with the character array that comprises the symbol string.
*
* @param symbol The symbol to hash.
*/
public int hash(String symbol) {
int code = 0;
int length = symbol.length();
for (int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
code = code * 37 + symbol.charAt(i);
}
return code & 0x7FFFFFF;
} // hash(String):int
/**
* Returns a hashcode value for the specified symbol information.
* The value returned by this method must be identical to the value
* returned by the <code>hash(String)</code> method when called
* with the string object created from the symbol information.
*
* @param buffer The character buffer containing the symbol.
* @param offset The offset into the character buffer of the start
* of the symbol.
* @param length The length of the symbol.
*/
public int hash(char[] buffer, int offset, int length) {
int code = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
code = code * 37 + buffer[offset + i];
}
return code & 0x7FFFFFF;
} // hash(char[],int,int):int
/**
* Returns true if the symbol table already contains the specified
* symbol.
*
* @param symbol The symbol to look for.
*/
public boolean containsSymbol(String symbol) {
// search for identical symbol
int bucket = hash(symbol) % fTableSize;
int length = symbol.length();
OUTER: for (Entry entry = fBuckets[bucket]; entry != null; entry = entry.next) {
if (length == entry.characters.length) {
for (int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
if (symbol.charAt(i) != entry.characters[i]) {
continue OUTER;
}
}
return true;
}
}
return false;
} // containsSymbol(String):boolean
/**
* Returns true if the symbol table already contains the specified
* symbol.
*
* @param buffer The buffer containing the symbol to look for.
* @param offset The offset into the buffer.
* @param length The length of the symbol in the buffer.
*/
public boolean containsSymbol(char[] buffer, int offset, int length) {
// search for identical symbol
int bucket = hash(buffer, offset, length) % fTableSize;
OUTER: for (Entry entry = fBuckets[bucket]; entry != null; entry = entry.next) {
if (length == entry.characters.length) {
for (int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
if (buffer[offset + i] != entry.characters[i]) {
continue OUTER;
}
}
return true;
}
}
return false;
} // containsSymbol(char[],int,int):boolean
//
// Classes
//
/**
* This class is a symbol table entry. Each entry acts as a node
* in a linked list.
*/
protected static final class Entry {
//
// Data
//
/** Symbol. */
public String symbol;
/**
* Symbol characters. This information is duplicated here for
* comparison performance.
*/
public char[] characters;
/** The next entry. */
public Entry next;
//
// Constructors
//
/**
* Constructs a new entry from the specified symbol and next entry
* reference.
*/
public Entry(String symbol, Entry next) {
this.symbol = symbol.intern();
characters = new char[symbol.length()];
symbol.getChars(0, characters.length, characters, 0);
this.next = next;
}
/**
* Constructs a new entry from the specified symbol information and
* next entry reference.
*/
public Entry(char[] ch, int offset, int length, Entry next) {
characters = new char[length];
System.arraycopy(ch, offset, characters, 0, length);
symbol = new String(characters).intern();
this.next = next;
}
} // class Entry
} // class SymbolTable