What is the difference between the “==” operator and the “.equals()” method in Java?

reference equality:
In Java, “==” is used for reference equality, which means that it checks whether two objects refer to the same memory location.
example of code:
String s1 = “hello”;
String s2 = new String(“hello”);

if (s1 == s2) {
  System.out.println(“s1 and s2 are the same object”);
} else {
  System.out.println(“s1 and s2 are different objects”);
}
output: s1 and s2 ar different objects.

value equality,equals() method:
Value equality takes place when two separate objects happen to have the same values or state.This compares values and is closely related to the Object’s equals() method.
example-
String s1 = “hello”;
String s2 = new String(“hello”);

if (s1.equals(s2)){
  System.out.println(“s1 and s2 have the same value”);
} else {
  System.out.println(“s1 and s2 have different values”);
}
output – s1 and s2 have same value.