For a nonempty String of size 10 characters or less, the added overhead cost relative to useful payload (2 bytes for each char plus 4 bytes for the length), ranges from 100 to 400 percent.

When you use the length property to find the size of an array that contains five elements, the value returned for the Java array length is five, not four. Java Array length vs String length () New ...

I have previously blogged on how Groovy and ActionScript provide demonstrations of switching on Strings functionality that has not been available in Java. JDK 7 changes this for Java by ...