Difference between equals() method and == operator in comparing Java objects

In Java, two objects can be compared using the equals() method and == operator.

== operator is used to check if the references to two objects are same i.e. they point to the same location in memory.

The equals() method is used to check if the two objects have the same contents (same values in attributes). The default equals() implementation is provided in the Object class and its behavior is exactly the same as the == operator. A programmer is expected to override the equals() method and compare object contents to get the desired behavior. Another point to be noted is that hashCode() and equals() method should always be overridden together.