Object Oriented Software Engineering   View all facts   Glossary   Help

subject > component > module > Java module > Java method > equals method

equals method
subject			fact

equals method	has example boolean b = aPostalCode.equals(anotherPostalCode);
	has purpose to test whether two objects are equal i.e. they contain the same data, but are not necessarily the same object
	is a subtopic of The Basics of Java
	is an instance of Java method
Java method	can be accessed by other methods and variables in any class in the same package by default
	overrides a method in a superclass with the same name
	should be as private as possible
	should not be public except for those that will definitely need to be called from outside the package
	should return to its caller from only one place which should be the last statement
method	should have a comment at its head if the method is non-obvious
module	has high cohesion if related aspects of a system are kept together in this module, and unrelated aspects are kept out
	is implemented
	lacks side effects if it does not modify any data, and does not leave behind any information, other than its result, that would have an effect on other computations
procedural abstraction	has advantage when using a certain procedure, a programmer does not need to worry about all the details of how it performs its computations; he or she only needs to know how to call it and what it computes
	hides the details of procedures
procedure	provides procedural abstraction
component	may perform a special-purpose function such as the user interface for a particular system

Next Java method: Java abstract method    Up: Java method    Previous Java method: toString