_Summarye: We consider the standard methods that all (or most) objects provide.
Prerequisites: Basics of Java, Classes and objects.
In Java, all template classes provide a variety of standard methods. By standard method, I mean that it is a standard that you include the method. You may have already encountered one such method, toString.
Why does Java have standard methods? Because programmers benefit from knowing that certain methods are there. For example, you can easily convert any object to a string with the toString method, and you don’t even have to bother to look it up. Similarly, you can compare any two objects in the same class for equality with the equals method.
Java has a few groups of standard methods. Some must be there for every class. These methods include toString and equals. Others you may choose whether or not to include, and you specify in an interesting way that you have included them. These methods include clone and compareTo.
What happens if you don’t write the simplest standard methods? Java supplies its own, and they don’t always work the way you would expect them to work.
Fraction classHere’s a simple Fraction class that we’ll be using for this example.
/**
* Simple fractions.
*/
public class Fraction {
// +--------+---------------------------------------------------------
// | Fields |
// +--------+
/** The numerator of the fraction. */
int numerator;
/** The denominator of the fraction. This should be a positive number. */
int denominator;
// +--------------+---------------------------------------------------
// | Constructors |
// +--------------+
/**
* Build the fraction _numerator/_denominator.
*/
public Fraction(int _numerator, int _denominator) throws Exception {
if (_denominator == 0) {
this.numerator = Integer.MAX_VALUE;
this.denominator = 1;
} else if (_denominator < 0) {
this.numerator = -_numerator;
this.denominator = -_denominator;
} else {
this.numerator = _numerator;
this.denominator = _denominator;
}
} // Fraction(int, int)
/**
* Convert an integer to a fraction.
*/
public Fraction(int value) {
this.numerator = value;
this.denominator = 1;
} // Fraction(in)
// +---------+--------------------------------------------------------
// | Methods |
// +---------+
// ...
} // class Fraction
toString methodOne of the simplest methods that most classes provide is the toString method, which has the signature public String toString().
As the name of the method suggests, this method converts the object to a string. Why would we want to convert an object to a string? Most typically, so that we can print the object (to the screen, to a file, perhaps even to a dialog box).
The toString method is so fundamental that Java uses it implicitly in a number of cases. For example, whenever you try to print an object, Java calls the toString method, even if you haven’t explicitly listed it in your call. Similarly, if you try too concatenate another object with a string using the + operation, Java converts the object to a string using the toString method.
What happens when you don’t write the toString method? Java supplies a default version that prints the class of the object followed by some other value (which may be the address of the object in memory). Yes, it’s a strange default, but it’s about as good as anything.
Fraction.toStringHere’s a sample toString method for our Fraction class.
public String toString() {
return this.numerator + "/" + this.denominator;
} // toString()
equals methodAnother simple standard method is equals, which you use to determine whether one object is “naturally” the same as another object. You first have a responsibility to determine what “naturally” means. For example, are two decimal numbers the same if they are not precisely equal? Are two fractions the same if one is simplified and one is not? Are two vectors in two-space the same if one has an angle of 360 degrees more than the other? Are two vectors in two-space the same if they have the same radius, and their angles differ by a very small amount (less than 1/1000 of a degree)? It’s up to you. But once you’ve made your decision, document it well.
The standard signature for the equals method is public boolean equals(Object other).
Note that it is somewhat difficult to compare an object in a specific class to a more general object. So, what do you do? My standard solution is to provide a second form of equals that takes the specific kind of object as a parameter, and then, in the first equals, call the second while casting the object to that type. (Recall that you cast a value to another type by prefacing the name of the value with the name of the type in parentheses.)
Fraction.equalsFor example, in a Fraction class, we might write
/**
* Compare this fraction to another fraction. They are the same
* if they have the same numerator and denominator.
*/
public boolean equals(Fraction other) {
return this.numerator.equals(other.numerator)
&& this.denominator.equals(other.denominator);
} // equals(Fraction)
/**
* Compare this fraction to another object. The two are only
* equal if they are both fractions and have the same numerator
* and denominator.
*/
public boolean equals(Object other) {
if (other instanceof Fraction) {
return this.equals((Fraction) other);
} // if (other is a Fraction)
else {
return false;
} // if (other is not a Fraction)
} // equals(Object)
Of course, you might express that more concisely as follows.
public booleans equals(Object other) {
return (other instanceof Fraction) && this.equals((Fraction) other);
} // equals(Object)
At some point, you should consider comparing fractions to other numeric types.
equalsIf you don’t bother to write equals, Java provides a default version that returns true only if the two values share the same memory locations.
Once you start writing your own equals methods, you should make sure that you understand the specifications for equals.
compareToThe equals method provides the simplest form of comparison. At times, we need more complex comparison, such as when we want to put a sequence of values in order from smallest to largest. For such situations, objects may (but need not) provide the compareTo method.
This method has the signature public int compareTo(Class other), where Class is typically the class you’re defining. For example, in a Fraction class, we would write
public int compareTo(Fraction other) {
...
} // compareTo(Fraction)
The this.compareTo(other) method returns
this naturally precedes other;this.equals(other);other naturally precedes this.How should you decide if one object “naturally precedes” another? Once again, that’s up to you. What if you can’t choose such a relationship? Then you shouldn’t bother implementing compareTo. What if there are many possible relationships, as in the case of of students, who you might compare by name, by age, by student ID, by height, by GPA, or by something completely different? Then you can either pick one as a default or decide that by default, students are not comparable. In a subsequent reading, we’ll consider how to support multiple kinds of comparisons.
The ordering given by compareTo should be transitive and reflexive. When we say that it is transitive, we mean that if a.compareTo(b) returns a negative number and b.compareTo(c) returns a negative number, then a.compareTo(c) should also return a negative number. (We can say something similar when it reutrns positive numbers.) When we say that it is reflexive, we mean that if a.compareTo(b) returns a negative number, then b.compareTo(a) should return a positive number (and vice versa).
Because this standard method is not always implementable (that is, there is sometimes no natural ordering), you need not include it. If you do you should add the following line to the header of your class
implements Comparable<Class>
You must also import java.util.Comparable.
For example,
import java.util.Comparable;
public class Fraction implements Comparable<Fraction> {
// ...
public int compareTo(Fraction other) {
// ...
} // compareTo(Fraction)
// ...
} // class Fraction
Note that for the compareTo method, you need not follow the “two method” strategy that you had to use in equals. Only one compareTo, which compares to objects in the same class, is all that is necessary.
clone MethodAt times, you have one copy of an object and you need another copy. For example, you may have created a StringBuffer and want to keep the original and make a copy that you will modify. To support such situations, Java encourages you to provide a method called clone.
The signature of this method is public Object clone(). You may find it strange that clone returns an Object rather than explicitly returning a member of the specified class. This form of return was all that was supported in an early version of Java (that is, there was no way to have multiple methods with the same name and parameter types, but different return types), and it seems to have been retained.
Here’s a simple clone method for our Fraction class.
public Fraction clone() {
return new Fraction(this.numerator, this denominator);
} // clone()
cloneBecause clone returns an object, you need to cast the return value. For example, the Java compiler will complain about the following code.
Fraction frac2 = frac1.clone();
Instead, you must write:
Fraction frac2 = (Fraction) frac1.clone();
Although clone is a standard method, it is also optional. If you supply the method, you should indicate that your class implements Cloneable. For example,
public class Fraction implements Cloneable, Comparable<Fraction> {
// ...
} // class Fraction
hashCode methodThe last of the standard methods is somewhat strange. The hashCode method returns “some integer that represents this object”. What integer should you return? It’s up to you. However, there are two rules you should follow:
equals method) should have the same value returned by hashCode.Of course, it is impossible to guarantee that unequal objects have different numbers, since there are typically more objects than there are integers. You should simply try to give unequal objects different numbers.
Why does Java include the hashCode method as a standard method? That method is very useful for hash tables, which we will consider later in the semester. (The designers of Java made some strange decisions as to what to make default. Some folks find this one of the stranger ones.)
Do you have to write the hashCode method? It’s not a bad idea. The Java standard suggests that if you write equals, then you must write hashCode.
What is the default behavior of hashCode? By default hashCode returns some value computed from the memory location of the object. Hence, two equal values are unlikely to have the same hash code unless you write the method.
And yes, it’s okay if your method is relatively naive, provided you make some attempt to provide different numbers when values are different. For example, the following would be acceptable for the Fraction class, assuming that you either decided that (a) fractions are stored in simplified form or (b) fractions with different numerators are different. (And yes, this method does create lots of duplicate hash codes.)
public int hashCode() {
return 11 * this.numerator() + 17 * this.denominator();
} // hashCode()
We will return to the computation of hash codes when we explore hash tables.
Important methods
String toString()boolean equals(Object other)int compareTo(Type other)int hashCode()