Is there any design pattern (or idiom) that helps to implement equals()
method in Java?
That task is'n so hard but in most cases it's about the same... That's why I guess that there is a pattern but I didn't find it.
UPDATE
I chose the method: generate equals() method in Eclipse
but... I found a good way (in AbstractList) to make that generated code better:
if (!(attributes ==null ? other.attributes==null : attributes.equals(other.attributes)))
return false;
instead of generated:
if (attributes == null) {
if (other.attributes != null)
return false;
} else if (!attributes.equals(other.attributes))
return false;
Generally to implement equals() method, what I do is : I generate those from Eclipse as Eclipse can generate hashCode, toString and equals() methods very well.