测试对象的等价性(Thinking in Java 4th Edition)

前几天看到了这一节，感觉很重要，收录起来。

Testing object equivalence

The relational operators == and != also work with all objects, but their meaning often confuses the first-time Java programmer. Here’s an example:

//: operators/Equivalence.java
package operators;

public class Equivalence {
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		Integer n1 = new Integer(47);
		Integer n2 = new Integer(47);
		System.out.println(n1 == n2);
		System.out.println(n1 != n2);
	}
} /* Output:
false
true
*///:~

The statement System.out.println(n1 == n2) will print the result of the boolean comparison within it. Surely the output should be “true” and then “false,” since both Integer objects are the same. But while the contents of the objects are the same, the references are not the same. The operators == and != compare object references, so the output is actually “false” and then “true.” Naturally, this surprises people at first.
What if you want to compare the actual contents of an object for equivalence? You must use the special method equals( ) that exists for all objects (not primitives, which work fine with == and !=). Here’s how it’s used:

//: operators/Equivalence.java
package operators;

public class Equivalence {
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		Integer n1 = new Integer(47);
		Integer n2 = new Integer(47);
		System.out.println(n1 == n2);
		System.out.println(n1 != n2);
	}
} /* Output:
false
true
*///:~

The result is now what you expect. Ah, but it’s not as simple as that. If you create your own class, like this:

//: operators/EqualsMethod2.java
// Default equals() does not compare contents.
package operators;

class Value {
	int i;
}

public class EqualsMethod2 {
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		Value v1 = new Value();
		Value v2 = new Value();
		v1.i = v2.i = 100;
		System.out.println(v1.equals(v2));
	}
} /*
* Output: false
*///:~

things are confusing again: The result is false. This is because the default behavior of equals( ) is to compare references. So unless you override equals( ) in your new class you won’t get the desired behavior. Unfortunately, you won’t learn about overriding until the Reusing Classes chapter and about the proper way to define equals( ) until the Containers in Depth chapter, but being aware of the way equals( ) behaves might save you some grief in the meantime.
Most of the Java library classes implement equals( ) so that it compares the contents of objects instead of their references.