CODEWITHSUNDEEP
java
Naresh
Naresh

Reputation: 25

What JVM checks in Java object equality (==)?

What does the JVM check in object equality (==)? Is it the hashCode of two objects or something else?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 340

Answers (4)

wero
wero

Reputation: 32980

It is easy to see how JVM treats == at bytecode level.

For example

public boolean compare(Object o1, Object o2)
{
     return o1 == o2;
}

compiles to the following byte code instructions (use javap -c to generate this):

public boolean compare(java.lang.Object, java.lang.Object);
  Code:
    0: aload_1
    1: aload_2
    2: if_acmpne     7
    5: iconst_1
    6: ireturn
    7: iconst_0
    8: ireturn

aload1 and aload2 load the references of o1 and o2 on the stack. The == operation is performed by if_acmpne.

if_acmpne pops the top two object references off the stack and compares them. If the two object references are not equal (i.e. if they refer to different objects), execution branches to .... If the object references refer to the same object, execution continues at the next instruction.

Of course this doesn't tell you how the JVM interpreter implements object references, or how a bytecode to native compiler like Hotspot implements it, but its a good start to explore the topic.

Upvotes: 0

Rustam
Rustam

Reputation: 6515

The equality operator (==) test for reference equality not hashCode 

public static void main(String[] args) {

    MyClass obj1=new MyClass();

    MyClass obj2=new MyClass();   //obj1 and obj2 refers two different location

    System.out.println("obj1= "+obj1+"\tobj2="+obj2);
    if(obj1==obj2){   // so return false.
        System.out.println("obj1==obj2");
    }else{
        System.out.println("obj1!=obj2");
    }

    System.out.println(obj1.hashCode()+"\t"+obj2.hashCode());

    }

class MyClass{}

output:

obj1= com.think.test.MyClass@1e9cb75    obj2=com.think.test.MyClass@2c84d9
obj1!=obj2
hashCode
obj1=32099189   obj2=2917593

EDIT

class EqualityTest {

     @Override
     public int hashCode(){ 
         return 1; 
     } 
     public static void main(String... arg){
         EqualityTest t1 = new EqualityTest(); 
         EqualityTest t2 =t1;  // t2 referring to t1.
         System.out.println(t1); 
         System.out.println(t2); 
         System.out.println(t1.hashCode());
         System.out.println(t2.hashCode()); 
         System.out.println(t1==t2);  // so it return true.
         } 
}

output:

com.think.test.Test9@1
com.think.test.Test9@1
1
1
true

Upvotes: 0

Jon Skeet
Jon Skeet

Reputation: 1500215

The == operator only checks reference equality. It doesn't call any methods on the object... it just checks whether the two references involved are equal, i.e. they refer to the same object.

In simple cases I believe this is just a matter of comparing the references in a bitwise fashion - checking whether or not they consist of the same bytes. For more complex environments (e.g. "compressed oops") there could be slightly more work involved, in order to compare different representations. But the internally reference is effectively a pointer of some kind, and it's just a matter of comparing the two pointers.

Upvotes: 3

Rahul Tripathi
Rahul Tripathi

Reputation: 172408

The == is used to compare object references. It simply checks if the two object are pointing to the same reference.

Upvotes: 0

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