Thanks for the reply! I thought about that approach, but am on the fence about it (it just doesn't seem like a clean way to go, for whatever reason). My feeling is that there must be code in the JDK ...

Most new Java developers quickly learn that they should generally compare Java Strings using String.equals(Object) rather than using ==. This is emphasized and reinforced to new developers repeatedly ...

A Java string is a sequence of characters that exists as an object of the class java.lang. Java strings are created and manipulated through the string class. Once created, a string is immutable -- its ...