Is it possible to generate equals and compareTo methods for classes generated with jaxb

Question

Is it possible to generate equals and compareTo methods for classes generated with jaxb, I use jaxb to generate classes from a schema. These classes actually have guids that allow them to be uniquely identified but how can I implement an equals/compare method so that Collection classes such as Set would recognise duplicate instances of the same entity ?

Answer 1

Disclaimer: I am the author of jaxb2-basics which provides JAXB2 plugins capable of generating hashCode and equals methods.

Here's usage example for Maven:

        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.jvnet.jaxb2.maven2</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-jaxb2-plugin</artifactId>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>generate</goal>
                    </goals>
                </execution>
            </executions>
            <configuration>
                <extension>true</extension>
                <args>
                    <arg>-Xequals</arg>
                    <arg>-XhashCode</arg>
                </args>
                <plugins>
                    <plugin>
                        <groupId>org.jvnet.jaxb2_commons</groupId>
                        <artifactId>jaxb2-basics</artifactId>
                        <version>...</version>
                    </plugin>
                </plugins>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>

(See the documentation for Ant.)

You can use -XsimpleHashCode and -XsimpleEquals which generate runtime-less hashCode and equals methods (hash code or equals calculation is inlined) or -XhashCode/-Xequals which generate "strategic" hashCode and equals methods (hash code/equals calculations are delegated to the passed strategy methods).

Here's what -XsimpleHashCode generates:

public class Customer {

    ...

    public int hashCode() {
        int currentHashCode = 1;
        {
            currentHashCode = (currentHashCode* 31);
            String theAddress;
            theAddress = this.getAddress();
            if (theAddress!= null) {
                currentHashCode += theAddress.hashCode();
            }
        }
        {
            currentHashCode = (currentHashCode* 31);
            Boolean theBlueEyes;
            theBlueEyes = this.isBlueEyes();
            if (theBlueEyes!= null) {
                currentHashCode += theBlueEyes.hashCode();
            }
        }
        {
            currentHashCode = (currentHashCode* 31);
            String theFamilyName;
            theFamilyName = this.getFamilyName();
            if (theFamilyName!= null) {
                currentHashCode += theFamilyName.hashCode();
            }
        }
        {
            currentHashCode = (currentHashCode* 31);
            String theGivenName;
            theGivenName = this.getGivenName();
            if (theGivenName!= null) {
                currentHashCode += theGivenName.hashCode();
            }
        }
        {
            currentHashCode = (currentHashCode* 31);
            List<String> theMiddleInitials;
            theMiddleInitials = (this.isSetMiddleInitials()?this.getMiddleInitials():null);
            if (theMiddleInitials!= null) {
                currentHashCode += theMiddleInitials.hashCode();
            }
        }
        {
            currentHashCode = (currentHashCode* 31);
            String thePostCode;
            thePostCode = this.getPostCode();
            if (thePostCode!= null) {
                currentHashCode += thePostCode.hashCode();
            }
        }
        {
            currentHashCode = (currentHashCode* 31);
            boolean theSingle;
            theSingle = this.isSingle();
            currentHashCode += (theSingle? 1231 : 1237);
        }
        return currentHashCode;
    }

}

Here's what -XhashCode generates:

public class Customer implements HashCode
{

    ...

    public int hashCode(ObjectLocator locator, HashCodeStrategy strategy) {
        int currentHashCode = 1;
        {
            String theAddress;
            theAddress = this.getAddress();
            currentHashCode = strategy.hashCode(LocatorUtils.property(locator, "address", theAddress), currentHashCode, theAddress);
        }
        {
            Boolean theBlueEyes;
            theBlueEyes = this.isBlueEyes();
            currentHashCode = strategy.hashCode(LocatorUtils.property(locator, "blueEyes", theBlueEyes), currentHashCode, theBlueEyes);
        }
        {
            String theFamilyName;
            theFamilyName = this.getFamilyName();
            currentHashCode = strategy.hashCode(LocatorUtils.property(locator, "familyName", theFamilyName), currentHashCode, theFamilyName);
        }
        {
            String theGivenName;
            theGivenName = this.getGivenName();
            currentHashCode = strategy.hashCode(LocatorUtils.property(locator, "givenName", theGivenName), currentHashCode, theGivenName);
        }
        {
            List<String> theMiddleInitials;
            theMiddleInitials = (this.isSetMiddleInitials()?this.getMiddleInitials():null);
            currentHashCode = strategy.hashCode(LocatorUtils.property(locator, "middleInitials", theMiddleInitials), currentHashCode, theMiddleInitials);
        }
        {
            String thePostCode;
            thePostCode = this.getPostCode();
            currentHashCode = strategy.hashCode(LocatorUtils.property(locator, "postCode", thePostCode), currentHashCode, thePostCode);
        }
        {
            boolean theSingle;
            theSingle = this.isSingle();
            currentHashCode = strategy.hashCode(LocatorUtils.property(locator, "single", theSingle), currentHashCode, theSingle);
        }
        return currentHashCode;
    }

    public int hashCode() {
        final HashCodeStrategy strategy = JAXBHashCodeStrategy.INSTANCE;
        return this.hashCode(null, strategy);
    }

}

From my PoV, "strategic" versions are more powerful. Classes implement HashCode or Equals interfaces which accept locators and hash code/equals strategies. This allows you to control the hash code calculation or comparison from the outside. I often use this in unit tests not just to check if two objects equals or not, but also to find out where do they differ, exactly.

Both plugins generate reflection-free methods (this is critical for the performance). They also consider JAXB special cases like JAXBElements, primitive arrays and so on.