CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaobjectequals
yogesh
yogesh

Reputation: 1

Why the below objects are not equals in Java?

IDE: Eclipse; Language: Java core

package p1;

public class StringTestA {

    /**
     * @param args
     */
    public static void main(String[] args) {

        Object o1 = new StringTestA();
        Object o2 = new StringTestA();

        StringTestA o3 = new StringTestA();
        StringTestA o4 = new StringTestA();

        if (o1.equals(o2)) {
            System.out.println("Object o1 and o2 are eqals");

        }

        if (o3.equals(o4)) {
            System.out.println("Object o3 and o4 are eqals");
        }

    }

    public boolean equals(StringTestA other) {
        System.out.println("StringTestA equals mathod reached");
        return true;
    }

}

Output:

  StringTestA equals method reached
  Object o3 and o4 are equals

No output if equals in not overridden.

Question: why System.out.println("Object o1 and o2 are eqals"); line is not printed as equals is returning true;

Upvotes: 0

Views: 73

Answers (1)

Mark Peters
Mark Peters

Reputation: 81154

You are not overriding equals(Object). The argument must be an Object, not StringTestA. You are instead overloading equals (creating a different method with the same name).

Always annotate methods you wish to override with @Override. Doing so will cause a compile error if you happen to make a mistake in the method declaration, as you did here. 

@Override
public boolean equals(Object obj) {
    //...
}

Upvotes: 8

Related Questions