I know that Java enums are compiled to classes with private constructors and a bunch of public static members. When comparing two members of a given enum, I've always used .equals(), e.g.
public useEnums(SomeEnum a)
{
if(a.equals(SomeEnum.SOME_ENUM_VALUE))
{
...
}
...
}
However, I just came across come code that uses the equals operator == instead:
public useEnums2(SomeEnum a)
{
if(a == SomeEnum.SOME_ENUM_VALUE)
{
...
}
...
}
I've been programming in Java for 5+ years, and I thought I understood difference between the two - but I'm still scratching my head at which one is more correct. Which operator is the one I should be using?
Anonymous User
16-May-2015Both are technically correct. If you look at the source code for .equals(), it simply defers to ==.
I use ==, however, as that will be null safe.