"equals" as a method name should be used exclusively to override Object.equals(Object) to prevent any confusion.
It is tempting to overload the method to take a specific class instead of Object as parameter, to save the class comparison check.
However, this will not work as expected when that is the only override.
Noncompliant Code Example
class MyClass {
private int foo = 1;
public boolean equals(MyClass o) { // Noncompliant; does not override Object.equals(Object)
return o != null && o.foo == this.foo;
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
MyClass o1 = new MyClass();
Object o2 = new MyClass();
System.out.println(o1.equals(o2)); // Prints "false" because o2 an Object not a MyClass
}
}
class MyClass2 {
public boolean equals(MyClass2 o) { // Ignored; `boolean equals(Object)` also present
//..
}
public boolean equals(Object o) {
//...
}
}
Compliant Solution
class MyClass {
private int foo = 1;
@Override
public boolean equals(Object o) {
if (this == o) {
return true;
}
if (o == null || getClass() != o.getClass()) {
return false;
}
MyClass other = (MyClass)o;
return this.foo == other.foo;
}
/* ... */
}
class MyClass2 {
public boolean equals(MyClass2 o) {
//..
}
public boolean equals(Object o) {
//...
}
}
