Strings

Strings in Java are immutable, meaning they cannot be modified after creation. For mutable string manipulation, Java offers StringBuffer and StringBuilder, with StringBuffer being thread-safe and slower due to synchronization, making StringBuilder preferred in single-threaded contexts. The String Pool optimizes memory by storing a single copy of each string literal, while string interning allows identical strings to share memory. The distinction between string creation via literals and the `new` keyword is crucial; literals are interned, while objects created with `new` occupy separate heap space. The `intern()` method is beneficial for comparing strings efficiently in terms of memory address.