I have a multitude of objects that are created with multiple instance variables (a string a multiple integers) I have to create a method that will check for equality between the object that executes the method and another object. By that I mean that I would want to see whether all the instance variables are the same for two objects by calling a method. I'm thinking of something like the equals method (string1.equals(string2)), but can I do the same for an object with multiple instance variables which are not all strings?
example:
//object1
String name1= keyb.nextLine();
int age1= keyb.nextInt();
int monthborn1;
//object2
String name2=keyb.nextLine();
int age2 = keyb.nextInt();
int monthborn2;
I need to make a method that compare both objects and sees if they are equal or not.
Thank you very much.
Yes, you can create an equals
method for your class. For example:
public final class Person {
private final String name;
private final int age;
private final int birthMonth;
public Person(String name, int age, int birthMonth) {
this.name = Objects.requireNonNull(name);
this.age = age;
this.birthMonth = birthMonth;
}
@Override
public boolean equals(Object o) {
if (o instanceof Person) {
Person rhs = (Person) o;
return name.equals(rhs.name)
&& age == rhs.age
&& birthMonth == rhs.birthMonth;
}
return false;
}
// Any time you override `equals`, you must make a matching `hashCode`.
// This implementation of `hashCode` is low-quality, but demonstrates
// the idea.
@Override
public int hashCode() {
return name.hashCode() ^ age ^ birthMonth;
}
}