Why Object.toString(obj) != String.ValueOf(obj)?

Question

Java

Google writes that these methods are equivalent, except that when null ValueOf throws a NullPointerException, while toString does not.

But if you run

System.out.ptintln(Object.toString(obj) ==  String.ValueOf(obj))

java will print "false" to the console.
Please explain why this is so, ideally an explanation based on the documentation. I don’t understand on my own (I

also wonder if it’s correct to say that when writing String str = Object.toString(obj) we put a reference to the structure of the obj object in the String variable?

Answer 1

Because in Java, the equality operator is not applicable for checking the equality of objects. Canonical answer to this thread.