Generic pair class

Question

Just attempting this question I found in a past exam paper so that I can prepare for an upcoming Java examination.

Provide a generic class Pair for representing pair

Answer 1

After editing, it looks good.

However, you really should implement the hashCode and equals methods, so that two pairs containing the same objects will be equal to each other, and can be used as keys in a HashMap. And toString if you're feeling generous. These methods are not required to fulfil the requirements you've been given, but they are things a good programmer would add.

Answer 2

My version of Pair. This also handles compares. PS : Most of the code is taken from AOSP.

package util;

import java.util.Objects;

public class Pair<F extends Comparable<F>, S extends Comparable<S>>
  implements Comparable<Pair<F, S>> {

    public final F first;
    public final S second;

    /**
     * Constructor for a Pair.
     *
     * @param first  the first object in the Pair
     * @param second the second object in the pair
     */
    public Pair(F first, S second) {
        this.first = first;
        this.second = second;
    }

    /**
     * Checks the two objects for equality by delegating to their respective
     * {@link Object#equals(Object)} methods.
     *
     * @param o the {@link Pair} to which this one is to be checked for equality
     * @return true if the underlying objects of the Pair are both considered
     * equal
     */
    @Override
    public boolean equals(Object o) {
        if (!(o instanceof Pair)) {
            return false;
        }
        Pair<?, ?> p = (Pair<?, ?>) o;
        return Objects.equals(p.first, first) && Objects.equals(p.second, second);
    }

    /**
     * Compute a hash code using the hash codes of the underlying objects
     *
     * @return a hashcode of the Pair
     */
    @Override
    public int hashCode() {
        return (first == null ? 0 : first.hashCode()) ^ (second == null ? 0 : second.hashCode());
    }

    /**
     * Convenience method for creating an appropriately typed pair.
     *
     * @param a the first object in the Pair
     * @param b the second object in the pair
     * @return a Pair that is templatized with the types of a and b
     */
    public static <A extends Comparable<A>, B extends Comparable<B>> Pair<A, B> create(A a, B b) {
        return new Pair<>(a, b);
    }

    @Override
    public int compareTo(Pair<F, S> that) {
        int cmp = this.first.compareTo(that.first);
        if (cmp == 0)
            cmp = this.second.compareTo(that.second);
        return cmp;
    }
}