Overriding equals method in Java - GeeksforGeeks

29 Jul, 2021
Consider the following Java program: 
Java
class Complex {    private double re, im;            public Complex(double re, double im) {        this.re = re;        this.im = im;    }} // Driver class to test the Complex classpublic class Main {    public static void main(String[] args) {        Complex c1 = new Complex(10, 15);        Complex c2 = new Complex(10, 15);        if (c1 == c2) {            System.out.println("Equal ");        } else {            System.out.println("Not Equal ");        }    }}
Output: 
Not Equal 
The reason for printing “Not Equal” is simple: when we compare c1 and c2, it is checked whether both c1 and c2 refer to same object or not (object variables are always references in Java). c1 and c2 refer to two different objects, hence the value (c1 == c2) is false. If we create another reference say c3 like following, then (c1 == c3) will give true.
Java
Complex c3 = c1;  // (c3 == c1) will be true
So, how do we check for equality of values inside the objects? All classes in Java inherit from the Object class, directly or indirectly (See point 1 of this). The Object class has some basic methods like clone(), toString(), equals(),.. etc. We can override the equals method in our class to check whether two objects have same data or not. 
Java
class Complex {     private double re, im;     public Complex(double re, double im) {        this.re = re;        this.im = im;    }     // Overriding equals() to compare two Complex objects    @Override    public boolean equals(Object o) {         // If the object is compared with itself then return true         if (o == this) {            return true;        }         /* Check if o is an instance of Complex or not          "null instanceof [type]" also returns false */        if (!(o instanceof Complex)) {            return false;        }                 // typecast o to Complex so that we can compare data members        Complex c = (Complex) o;                 // Compare the data members and return accordingly        return Double.compare(re, c.re) == 0                && Double.compare(im, c.im) == 0;    }} // Driver class to test the Complex classpublic class Main {     public static void main(String[] args) {        Complex c1 = new Complex(10, 15);        Complex c2 = new Complex(10, 15);        if (c1.equals(c2)) {            System.out.println("Equal ");        } else {            System.out.println("Not Equal ");        }    }}
Output: 
Equal 
As a side note, when we override equals(), it is recommended to also override the hashCode() method. If we don’t do so, equal objects may get different hash-values; and hash based collections, including HashMap, HashSet, and Hashtable do not work properly (see this for more details). We will be covering more about hashCode() in a separate post. References: Effective Java Second EditionPlease write comments if you find anything incorrect, or you want to share more information about the topic discussed above. 
simmytarika5
java-overriding
Java
Java
Writing code in comment?
Please use ide.geeksforgeeks.org,
generate link and share the link here.
Comments
Old Comments
Object Oriented Programming (OOPs) Concept in Java
HashMap in Java with Examples
How to iterate any Map in Java
Initialize an ArrayList in Java
ArrayList in Java
Multidimensional Arrays in Java
Stack Class in Java
Singleton Class in Java
LinkedList in Java
Collections in Java