Equality and Comparisons

[dyslexicanaboko]

Handling equality and comparisons for List<T>

• Modify List<T> constructor to give an optional way to provide a IComparer of T or equivalent for the following functions:
  • contains(item: T): boolean
    • This function will operate based on how equality and comparison is implemented in T
  • removes(item: T): boolean
    • Works like contains
  • sort(comparison?: (left: T, right: T) => number): void
    • This function will operate based on how equality and comparison is implemented in T or the user can provide their own sort function. As of right now a default comparer is inside of the class, but it will only work for primitives.

Handling equality and comparisons for non-primitive types

• Require a way to deal with equality of more complex objects, such as IEquatable of T or IEqualityComparer of T
  • https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.iequatable-1
  • https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.collections.generic.iequalitycomparer-1

Unanswered questions

• Can TypeScript handle complex objects of type T providing guidance on equality and comparison?
• Can the List<T> automatically pick up how to compare complex T from T?
  • If yes, then great, that's how C# does it.
  • If no, then that kind of sucks, but the constructor can just take an optional comparer object

[dyslexicanaboko]

Ran into some interesting bumps for this one. The getHashCode() function is not implemented yet, but will be in #4. I have implemented IEquatable<T> and IComparable<T>.