Why String is immutable in java?

[harikrishanyogi]

Hi,

I am Harikrishan.

please any one tell me.

string is immutable in java why?
i know string is immutable in java and meaning of immutable.

but why string is immutable in java.



please help me.

[JosAH]

For one thing: a String couldn't serve as a key in a Map<String, ?> nor can substrings share their char buffers.

kind regards,

Jos

[KevinWorkman]

Also, how would using String literals make sense? What happens if you do this?

System.out.println("cats"); //prints cats, okay
"cats".add(" and more cats"); //since Strings are mutable, this appends the String?
System.out.println("cats"); //this now prints out something other than the literal?