## Why is this an issue?

It is preferable to place string literals on the left-hand side of an `equals()` or `equalsIgnoreCase()` method call.

This prevents null pointer exceptions from being raised, as a string literal can never be null by definition.

### Noncompliant code example

    String myString = null;

    System.out.println("Equal? " + myString.equals("foo"));                        // Noncompliant; will raise a NPE
    System.out.println("Equal? " + (myString != null && myString.equals("foo")));  // Noncompliant; null check could be removed

### Compliant solution

    System.out.println("Equal?" + "foo".equals(myString));                         // properly deals with the null case