How does the use of the equals method differ from the == operator when comparing objects in Java?

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

For example, for strings:

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

Important: the class should override the equals() method to ensure content comparison works correctly. If equals() is not overridden, it behaves like == by default (comparing references).