What is the correct way to refer to Java members in text?

Question

In answering questions I find myself referring to method names and online documentation often. I'm confused about how method names should be referenced in text.

For example I often type:

One should use String.equals() for comparing two strings for equality.

However, this is a little misleading:

1. It makes equals() appear to be a static member.
2. It makes equals() appear to not take any arguments.

In the interest of compleness, I would like to know:

What is the correct way to refer to both static members and instance members?

I've seen things like:

• String.equals()
• String#equals()
• myString.equals()

Is there a way to refer to methods in an argument-agnostic manner?

For example, in C foo(void) is explicitly a zero-argument function and foo() can be redefined later to have a different set of arguments. (?)

Answer 1

If you want to be really be exact you could use

java.lang.String#equals(java.lang.Object)

or the shorter form

String#equals(Object)

This is similar to the notation used in javadoc and interestingly also looks similar to the link to the documentation which ends with:

String.html#equals(java.lang.Object)

Edit: Here is a link to the javadoc documentation describing how to use references.

Answer 2

I've found that a link to the documentation for String's equals method removes the ambiguity.