This line is in the form of
String str = ...
str.equals("someOtherString");
//or
str.compareTo("someOtherString");
A NullPointerException may occur if the String variable str is null. If instead the code was restructured to
String str = ...
"someOtherString".equals(str);
//or
"someOtherString".compareTo(str);
that is, call equals() or compareTo() on the string literal, passing the variable as an argument, this exception could never happen as both equals() and compareTo() check for null.
mharindu
Chatura Dilan Perera
Timo Briddigkeit
ayyoob
charithag