Re: Map question

From:
Tom Anderson <twic@urchin.earth.li>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.java.programmer
Date:
Mon, 31 May 2010 20:39:48 +0100
Message-ID:
<alpine.DEB.1.10.1005312037280.25330@urchin.earth.li>
On Mon, 31 May 2010, Robert Klemme wrote:

On 31.05.2010 18:57, Tom Anderson wrote:

On Mon, 31 May 2010, Lew wrote:

Tom Anderson wrote:

if ((obj == null) || !(obj instanceof SearchResultHotels)) return false;


The '(obj == null)' clause is superfluous.


Good point.

My brain, for some reason, has a hard time remembering that:

SearchResultHotels x = (SearchResultHotels)null;

is okay but:

null instanceof SearchResultHotels

is false.


You just need to remember that null does not have a type. At least
that's what helped me to get this straight. :-)


Yes, when i think about it, it's all perfectly clear. But i get it wrong
when i'm not thinking about it.

In further penance, i should point out that the instanceof test is risky
if the class can have subclasses, and where those subclasses might have
different ideas about equality. A more conservative form might be:

if ((obj == null) || !(obj,getClass().equals(SearchResultHotels.class)) return false;

Also, "nothing" cannot really be an instance of "something", can it?


Ah, but you would agree that nothing can be an instance of everything!

tom

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