Comparing two class objects with a method

Question

I have a multitude of objects that are created with multiple instance variables (a string a multiple integers) I have to create a method that will check for equality between the object that executes the method and another object. By that I mean that I would want to see whether all the instance variables are the same for two objects by calling a method. I'm thinking of something like the equals method (string1.equals(string2)), but can I do the same for an object with multiple instance variables which are not all strings?

example:

    //object1
    String name1= keyb.nextLine();
    int age1= keyb.nextInt();
    int monthborn1;

    //object2
    String name2=keyb.nextLine();
    int age2 = keyb.nextInt();
    int monthborn2;

I need to make a method that compare both objects and sees if they are equal or not.

Thank you very much.

Answer 1

Yes, you can create an equals method for your class. For example:

public final class Person {
    private final String name;
    private final int age;
    private final int birthMonth;

    public Person(String name, int age, int birthMonth) {
        this.name = Objects.requireNonNull(name);
        this.age = age;
        this.birthMonth = birthMonth;
    }

    @Override
    public boolean equals(Object o) {
        if (o instanceof Person) {
            Person rhs = (Person) o;
            return name.equals(rhs.name)
                    && age == rhs.age
                    && birthMonth == rhs.birthMonth;
        }
        return false;
    }

    // Any time you override `equals`, you must make a matching `hashCode`.
    // This implementation of `hashCode` is low-quality, but demonstrates
    // the idea.
    @Override
    public int hashCode() {
        return name.hashCode() ^ age ^ birthMonth;
    }
}