Bad practice - Class defines compareTo(...) and uses Object.equals()

Question

Wondering what needs to be done for listed method

 public final int compareTo(final FieldDTO o) {
        return o.available.compareTo(this.available);

its throwing exception on line 2 stating Bad practice - Class defines compareTo(...) and uses Object.equals() 16 days
field defines compareTo(FieldDTO) and uses Object.equals()

Not sure how should i handle this. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

If you define compareTo you should at least define equals

boolean equals(it) { 
  return compareTo(it) == 0; 
} 

otherwise you will get strange problems when you put your object in Maps and Sets. It is generally good practice to also define hashCode.

Answer 2

you need to override Object class equals() and hashCode() methods. Use IDE generated code for these, it will pull all the Object attributes and creates method for you.

On eclipse IDE:

1. Right click on the class
2. Select Source
3. Generate hashCode() and equals()...