JSTL -- Comparing two strings for equality

[trinkets]

I am coding in JSTL and trying to compare strings for equality. I get a false output even though the strings are equal. I tried printing out the length of the string to check whether any of the two has whitespaces but somehow the length of both the string is equal still when I compare the two strings i get false.

<cut value="${currRowName} : ${currColNodeName} : ${currRowName == currColNodeName}"/>

Any help with be appreciated.
Thanks