What is the difference between ZoneOffset.UTC and ZoneId.of("UTC")?

Why does

ZonedDateTime now = ZonedDateTime.now();
System.out.println(now.withZoneSameInstant(ZoneOffset.UTC)
        .equals(now.withZoneSameInstant(ZoneId.of("UTC"))));

print out false?

I would expect the both ZonedDateTime instances to be equal.

The answer comes from the javadoc of ZoneId (emphasis mine) ...

A ZoneId is used to identify the rules used to convert between an Instant and a LocalDateTime. There are two distinct types of ID:

Fixed offsets - a fully resolved offset from UTC/Greenwich, that uses the same offset for all local date-times

Geographical regions - an area where a specific set of rules for finding the offset from UTC/Greenwich apply

Most fixed offsets are represented by ZoneOffset. Calling normalized() on any ZoneId will ensure that a fixed offset ID will be represented as a ZoneOffset.

... and from the javadoc of ZoneId#of (emphasis mine):

This method parses the ID producing a ZoneId or ZoneOffset. A ZoneOffset is returned if the ID is 'Z', or starts with '+' or '-'.

The argument id is specified as "UTC", therefore it will return a ZoneId with an offset, which also presented in the string form:

System.out.println(now.withZoneSameInstant(ZoneOffset.UTC));
System.out.println(now.withZoneSameInstant(ZoneId.of("UTC")));

Outputs:

2017-03-10T08:06:28.045Z
2017-03-10T08:06:28.045Z[UTC]

As you use the equals method for comparison, you check for object equivalence. Because of the described difference, the result of the evaluation is false.

When the normalized() method is used as proposed in the documentation, the comparison using equals will return true, as normalized() will return the corresponding ZoneOffset:

Normalizes the time-zone ID, returning a ZoneOffset where possible.

now.withZoneSameInstant(ZoneOffset.UTC)
    .equals(now.withZoneSameInstant(ZoneId.of("UTC").normalized())); // true

As the documentation states, if you use "Z" or "+0" as input id, of will return the ZoneOffset directly and there is no need to call normalized():

now.withZoneSameInstant(ZoneOffset.UTC).equals(now.withZoneSameInstant(ZoneId.of("Z"))); //true
now.withZoneSameInstant(ZoneOffset.UTC).equals(now.withZoneSameInstant(ZoneId.of("+0"))); //true

To check if they store the same date time, you can use the isEqual method instead:

now.withZoneSameInstant(ZoneOffset.UTC)
    .isEqual(now.withZoneSameInstant(ZoneId.of("UTC"))); // true

Sample

System.out.println("equals - ZoneId.of(\"UTC\"): " + nowZoneOffset
        .equals(now.withZoneSameInstant(ZoneId.of("UTC"))));
System.out.println("equals - ZoneId.of(\"UTC\").normalized(): " + nowZoneOffset
        .equals(now.withZoneSameInstant(ZoneId.of("UTC").normalized())));
System.out.println("equals - ZoneId.of(\"Z\"): " + nowZoneOffset
        .equals(now.withZoneSameInstant(ZoneId.of("Z"))));
System.out.println("equals - ZoneId.of(\"+0\"): " + nowZoneOffset
        .equals(now.withZoneSameInstant(ZoneId.of("+0"))));
System.out.println("isEqual - ZoneId.of(\"UTC\"): "+ nowZoneOffset
        .isEqual(now.withZoneSameInstant(ZoneId.of("UTC"))));

Output:

equals - ZoneId.of("UTC"): false
equals - ZoneId.of("UTC").normalized(): true
equals - ZoneId.of("Z"): true
equals - ZoneId.of("+0"): true
isEqual - ZoneId.of("UTC"): true

What is the difference between ZoneOffset.UTC and ZoneId.of("UTC")?

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