Why is it recommended in Java to use the equals method instead of the == operator for object comparison?

In Java, the == operator compares references to objects, i.e., checks whether two variables point to the same object in memory. The equals() method is intended for comparing the content of objects, i.e., their logical equality.

For example, two different String objects with the same text: == will return false, and equals() will return true:

String a = new String("test");
String b = new String("test");

System.out.println(a == b);       // false, different objects
System.out.println(a.equals(b));  // true, same content

Therefore, for value equality, it is recommended to use equals() to compare the content, not references.