Re: do I need to override the equals() method?

Albert <albert@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
Marteno Rodia a écrit :
I've defined a class which, of course, silently extends
java.lang.Object, but I've added some my own attributes. Now I want to
be able to compare two objects of my class i.e. to check if they are
identical.

If you want to check for *identity*, then you can just use the inherited
Object.equals() and ignore the rest of this posting.

Do I need to write my own equals() method or can I use the
inherited java.lang.Object.equals() method?
so if you want that equals returne true for "content identical" object,
yes you should override the equals(Object) method.
It depends on your uses. If you put object in collections and use
contains() for example, you might want to override equals.

In this case (or really always) if you override .equals() for a less
strict check, you *must* also override .hashCode() to be consistent
with that looser .equals(), otherwise some of the standard collections
may behave wrongly with your items.

.

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