Difference in instantiation semantics in Java for String.

example.java

class Playground {
    public static void main(String[ ] args) {
        String[] ex1 = new String[] { new String("a"), "b" };
        String[] ex2 = new String[] { new String("a"), "b" };
        
        evaluateReferenceEquality(ex1, ex2);
        
        evaluateValueEquality(ex1, ex2);
    }
    
    public static void evaluateReferenceEquality(String[] a, String[] b) {
        System.out.println("Reference equality");
        
        for(int i = 0; i < a.length; i++) {
            System.out.println(a[i] == b[i]);
        }
    }
    
    public static void evaluateValueEquality(String[] a, String[] b) {
        System.out.println("Value equality");
        
        for(int i = 0; i < a.length; i++) {
            System.out.println(a[i].equals(b[i]));
        }
    }
}

/* Output:
Reference equality
false
true
Value equality
true
true
*/