equalsHelper

[vorburger]

Hello, how do you guys like an idea for an equalsHelper, which can be used like this ?

The point would just be to avoid repeating the well known null/this/getClass() in every equals() - less litany, more readable code, less accidental bugs.

Just a thought, interested to hear if you think this is cool (and could be something for Guava).

[lowasser]

Are you familiar with AutoValue? (https://github.com/google/auto/blob/master/value/userguide/index.md)

AutoValue is our current preferred approach for dealing with the pain of equals/hashCode/toString in Java value classes.

[ogregoire]

AutoValue has the big disadvantage of not being compatible with major ORM frameworks, for instance. While an approach like the one suggested is.

[vorburger]

@lowasser yep I've seen AutoValue (but never actually tried it) - certainly like the approach a lot in general (personally I'd Code Generate my grandmother, if she was alive..), and do realize/just (re)learnt the PITA of hand-writing hashCode and equals (arrays, urgh! see https://git.opendaylight.org/gerrit/#/c/41600/), but there probably still are some cases when people hand-write equals? For those, perhaps this could be handy.

BTW: Perhaps you'd like to point to AutoValue more prominently from the main Wiki page about this where everyone looks at, on https://github.com/google/guava/wiki/CommonObjectUtilitiesExplained ?

PS: The trouble with tribbles, erm AutoValue, is applying it to (badly written..) existing "beans" used in a code base imposes changes e.g. from constructor to builder or factory - that's not always easily possible.