Compare two objects with .equals() and == operator

Question

I constructed a class with one String field. Then I created two objects and I have to compare them using == operator and .equals() too

Answer 1

Your class might implement the Comparable interface to achieve the same functionality. Your class should implement the compareTo() method declared in the interface.

public class MyClass implements Comparable<MyClass>{

    String a;

    public MyClass(String ab){
        a = ab;
    }

    // returns an int not a boolean
    public int compareTo(MyClass someMyClass){ 

        /* The String class implements a compareTo method, returning a 0 
           if the two strings are identical, instead of a boolean.
           Since 'a' is a string, it has the compareTo method which we call
           in MyClass's compareTo method.
        */

        return this.a.compareTo(someMyClass.a);

    }

    public static void main(String[] args){

        MyClass object1 = new MyClass("test");
        MyClass object2 = new MyClass("test");

        if(object1.compareTo(object2) == 0){
            System.out.println("true");
        }
        else{
            System.out.println("false");
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

The best way to compare 2 objects is by converting them into json strings and compare the strings, its the easiest solution when dealing with complicated nested objects, fields and/or objects that contain arrays.

sample:

import com.google.gson.Gson;


Object a = // ...;
Object b = //...;
String objectString1 = new Gson().toJson(a);
String objectString2 = new Gson().toJson(b); 

if(objectString1.equals(objectString2)){
    //do this
}

Answer 3

Your equals2() method always will return the same as equals() !!

Your code with my comments:

public boolean equals2(Object object2) {  // equals2 method
    if(a.equals(object2)) { // if equals() method returns true
        return true; // return true
    }
    else return false; // if equals() method returns false, also return false
}