Design patterns: elements of reusable object-oriented software
Design patterns: elements of reusable object-oriented software
Effective Java programming language guide
Effective Java programming language guide
Core Java 2: Volume I Fundamentals
Core Java 2: Volume I Fundamentals
An empirical study of the design and implementation of object equality in Java
CASCON '08 Proceedings of the 2008 conference of the center for advanced studies on collaborative research: meeting of minds
Verification of equivalent-results methods
ESOP'08/ETAPS'08 Proceedings of the Theory and practice of software, 17th European conference on Programming languages and systems
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A standard practice in object-oriented programming is to implement an operation, called equals in Java, for testing the equality of two objects. The equals method should be defined for every new Java class, but because of the intricacies of inheritance, casting, and dynamic typing, equals is often quite difficult to write correctly. And unfortunately many textbooks present flawed implementations of this operation. In this paper, we present a semantically correct technique for testing object equivalence, a technique that simultaneously brings together important mathematical foundations (equivalence relations), practical programming issues (inheritance, casting, dynamic typing), and sound software design (design patterns) in a natural and compelling way. While Java is used to demonstrate how the semantic flaws are corrected and the design improved using our techniques, the design is general enough that it will be clear how the same ideas could easily be extended to other languages such as C++.