Most of the Java developers are using the following way to compare a constant value :

String.equal(CONSTANT_VALUE)

Normal practice

        private static final String COMPARE_VALUE = "VALUE123";
 
	public boolean compareIt(String input){
 
		if(input.equals(COMPARE_VALUE)){
			return true;
		}else{
			return false;
		}
	}

This is fine to compare a constant value with the above method, however it will potentially causing a NullPointerException, if user pass a “null” value for the comparison.

if(input.equals(COMPARE_VALUE)) //hit NullPointerException if input is "null"

Best practice

        private static final String COMPARE_VALUE = "VALUE123";
 
	public boolean compareIt(String input){
 
		if(COMPARE_VALUE.equals(input)){
			return true;
		}else{
			return false;
		}
	}

The best practice should be use the constant value to compare with String, in order to prevent the potential NullPointerException

CONSTANT_VALUE.equal(String)
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