ArrayList not using the overridden equals

Question

I\'m having a problem with getting an ArrayList to correctly use an overriden equals. the problem is that I\'m trying to use the equals to only test for a single key field, and

Answer 1

in the other way, your equal method gets called if you change your code as follows. hope this clears the concept.

package com.test;

import java.util.ArrayList;    
import java.util.List;

public class TestClass  {
    private static class InnerClass{    
        private final String testKey;
        //data and such

        InnerClass(String testKey, int dataStuff) {
            this.testKey =testKey;
            //etc
        }

        @Override
        public boolean equals (Object in1) {
            System.out.println("reached here");
            if(in1 == null) {
                return false;
            }else if( in1 instanceof InnerClass) {
                return ((InnerClass) this).testKey == null ? false : ((InnerClass) this).testKey.equals(((InnerClass) in1).testKey);
            }else {
                return false;
            }       
        }       
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {    
        ArrayList objectList = new ArrayList();
        InnerClass in1 = new InnerClass("UNIQUE ID1", 42);
        InnerClass in2 = new InnerClass("UNIQUE ID1", 42);

        //add some entries
        objectList.add(in1);
        System.out.println( objectList.contains(in2)); 
    }    
}