How to compare two URLs in java?

Question

Here's a simple problem - given two urls, is there some built-in method, or an Apache library that decides whether they are (logically) equal?

For example, these two urls are equal:

http://stackoverflow.com
http://stackoverflow.com/

Answer 1

While URI.equals() (as well as the problematic URL.equals()) does not return true for these specific examples, I think it's the only case where equivalence can be assumed (because there is no empty path in the HTTP protocol).

The URIs http://stackoverflow.com/foo and http://stackoverflow.com/foo/ can not be assumed to be equivalent.

Maybe you can use URI.equals() wrapped in a utility method that handles this specific case explicitly.

Answer 2

URL::equals reference

URL urlOne = new URL("http://stackoverflow.com");
URL urlTwo = new URL("http://stackoverflow.com/");

if( urlOne.equals(urlTwo) )
{
    // ....
}

---

Note from docs -

Two URL objects are equal if they have the same protocol, reference equivalent hosts, have the same port number on the host, and the same file and fragment of the file.

Two hosts are considered equivalent if both host names can be resolved into the same IP addresses; else if either host name can't be resolved, the host names must be equal without regard to case; or both host names equal to null.

Since hosts comparison requires name resolution, this operation is a blocking operation.

Note: The defined behavior for equals is known to be inconsistent with virtual hosting in HTTP.

So, instead you should prefer URI::equals reference as @Joachim suggested.