How to properly compare two Integers in Java?

Question

I know that if you compare a boxed primitive Integer with a constant such as:

Integer a = 4;
if (a < 5)

a will automaticall

Answer 1

In my case I had to compare two Integers for equality where both of them could be null. Searched similar topic, didn't found anything elegant for this. Came up with a simple utility functions.

public static boolean integersEqual(Integer i1, Integer i2) {
    if (i1 == null && i2 == null) {
        return true;
    }
    if (i1 == null && i2 != null) {
        return false;
    }
    if (i1 != null && i2 == null) {
        return false;
    }
    return i1.intValue() == i2.intValue();
}

//considering null is less than not-null
public static int integersCompare(Integer i1, Integer i2) {
    if (i1 == null && i2 == null) {
        return 0;
    }
    if (i1 == null && i2 != null) {
        return -1;
    }
    return i1.compareTo(i2);
}