The document discusses object equality in Scala and Java, highlighting the differences in how equality is compared using the `==` operator and the `equals()` method. It identifies common pitfalls when overriding equality methods, such as improper signatures and the importance of consistency with the `hashcode` method. It concludes by emphasizing the significance of defining equality correctly to maintain the principles of reflexivity, symmetry, and transitivity.

1. Object Equality In Scala
Ruchi Agarwal
Software Consultant
Knoldus

2. Object Equality In Java & Scala:
- Two equality comparisons:
1. == Operator
2. Equals()
- The == operator, which is the natural equality for value types and object indentity for
Refernce types in Java.
// This is Java
boolean isEqual(int x, int y){
return x == y; // Natural equality on value types
}
System.out.println(isEqual ( 421, 421)); //Output: True
//java.lang.Integer(Object)
boolean isEqual(Integer x, Integer y){
return x == y; // Reference equality on reference types
}
System.out.println(isEqual ( 421, 421)); //Output: False

3. - The == equality is reserved in Scala for the “ Natural ” equality of each type. The
equality operation == in scala is designed to be transparent with respect to the type's
representation.
- For value types, it is the natural (numeric or boolean) equality.
- For reference types, == is treated as an alias of the equals() inherited from object.
//This is Scala
scala> def isEqual(x : Int , y : Int) = x == y
isEqual: (x: Int, y: Int )Boolean
scala> isEqual( 421 , 421)
res8: Boolean = true
scala> def isEqual(x : Any , y : Any) = x == y
isEqual: (x: Any , y: Any)Boolean
scala> isEqual( 421 , 421)
res8: Boolean = true

4. String Comparisons:
- Scala, never fall into Java's well-known trap concerning string comparisons.
//This is Scala
scala> val x=“abcd”.substring(2)
x: java.lang.String = cd
scala> val y=“abcd”.substring(2)
y: java.lang.String = cd
scala> x == y
res7: Boolean = true
//This is Java
boolean isEquals(String x, String y){
return x.substring(2) == y.substring(2); //return x.substring(2).equals(y.substring(2));
//Output: true
}
String s1="abcd";
String s2="abcd";
System.out.println(isEquals(s1, s2)); //Output: false

5. Reference Equality:
- For refernce equality, Scala's class AnyRef defines an additional eq method, which
cannot be overridden and is implemented as reference equality(i. e., it behaves like ==
in Java for reference types).
scala> val x=new String(“abc”)
x: java.lang.String = abc
scala> val x=new String("abc")
x: java.lang.String = abc
scala> x == y
res13: Boolean = true // Value equality
scala> x eq y
res14: Boolean = false // Reference Equality
- There's also the negation of eq , which is called ne.
scala> x ne y
res14: Boolean = true

6. - For refernce equality, the behavior of == for new types can redefine by overriding the
equals method, which is always inherited from class Any.
- It is not possible to override == directly, as it is defined as a final method in class Any.
// defination of == in Any class
final def == (that : Any) : Boolean =
if ( null eq this) { null eq that }
else { this equals that }

7. Writing an Equality Method:
- Writing a correct equality method is surprisingly difficult in object-oriented languages.
- This is problematic, because equality is at the basis of many other things.
- Here are four common pitfalls that can cause inconsistent behavior when overriding
equals:
1. Defining equals with wrong signature
2. Changing equals without also changing hashCode
3. Defining equals in terms of mutable fields
4. Failing to define equals as an equivalence relation

8. Pitfall #1: Defining equals with wrong signature
class Point ( val x:Int, val y :Int) {
def equals (other: Point): Boolean = //Overloaded equals()
this.x == other.x && this.y == other.y
}
scala> val p1, p2 = new Point (1 , 2)
p1: Point = Point@1e0bb90
p2: Point = Point@139fb49
scala> val q= new Point( 2 , 3)
q: Point = Point@a44ec3
//Working OK
scala> p1 equals p2 res:0 Boolean : true
scala> p1 equals q res:0 Boolean : false
//Trouble
scala> val p2a: Any = p2 // Alias of p2
p2a: Any = Point@139fb49
// p2a calling equals() of Any class
scala> p1 equals p2a res:0 Boolean : false

9. Solution: Correct Signature
class Point ( val x:Int, val y :Int) {
// A better definition:Overriding equals of Any class
override def equals(other: Any) = other match {
case that: Point => this.x == that.x && this.y == that.y
case _ => false
}
}
scala> val p2a: Any = p2 // Alias of p2
p2a: Any = Point@139fb49
scala> p1 equals p2a res:0 Boolean : true

10. - A related pitfall is to define == with a wrong signature.
- If try to redefine == with the correct signature, which takes an argument of type Any, the
compiler will give an error because you try to override a final method of type Any.
- However, newcomers to Scala sometimes make two errors at once: They try to override ==
and they give it the wrong signature.
- For instance:
def ==(other: Point): Boolean = // Don’t do this! (User-defined == method)
- In that case, the user-defined == method is treated as an overloaded variant of the
same-named method class Any, and the program compiles.
- However, the behavior of the program would be just as dubious as if you had defined
equals with the wrong signature.

11. Pitfall #2: Changing equals without also changing hashCode
//Previously defined equals method
class Point ( val x:Int, val y :Int) {
// A better definition:Overriding equals of Any class
override def equals(other: Any) = other match {
case that: Point => this.x == that.x && this.y == that.y
case _ => false
}
}
scala> import scala.collection.mutable._
import scala.collection.mutable._
scala> val p1, p2 = new Point (1 , 2)
p1: Point = Point@1bef480
p2: Point = Point@1a6068c
//storing p1 to collection
scala> val coll = HashSet (p1)
coll: scala.collection.mutable.Set[Point] = Set(Point@62d74e)
scala> coll contains p2 res2: Boolean = false

12. - In fact, this outcome is not 100% certain. We might also get true from the experiment.
We can try with some other points with coordinates 1 and 2. Eventually, we’ll get one
which is not contained in the set.
hashSet(p1) contains p2
val p2
true val p1 val p2
false
hashSet Hash Bucket
Hash Bucket
Pitfall #2: Changing equals without also changing hashCode

13. - Wrong here is that Point redefined equals without also redefining hashCode.
- The problem was that the last implementation of Point violated the contract on hashCode as
defined for class Any:
If two objects are equal according to the equals method, then calling the
hashCode method on each of the two objects must produce the same integer result.
- In fact, it’s well known in Java that hashCode and equals should always be redefined
together.
- Furthermore, hashCode may only depend on fields that equals depends on.
- For the Point class, the following would be a suitable definition of hashCode:
override def hashCode = 41 * (41 + x) + y // Redefine hashCode
- This is just one of many possible implementations of hashCode.
- Adding hashCode fixes the problems of equality when defining classes like Point.

14. class Point(val x: Int, val y: Int) {
override def hashCode = 41 * (41 + x) + y // Redefine hashCode
override def equals(other: Any) = other match { // Redefine equals()
case that: Point => this.x == that.x && this.y == that.y
case _ => false
}
}
scala> val p1, p2 = new Point(1, 2)
p1: Point = Point@6bc
p2: Point = Point@6bc
scala> coll contains p2 res2: Boolean = true

15. Pitfall #3: Defining equals in terms of mutable fields:
- Consider the following slight variation of class Point:
class Point2(var x: Int, var y: Int) {
override def hashCode = 41 * (41 + x) + y // Redefine hashCode
override def equals(other: Any) = other match { // Redefine equals()
case that: Point2 => this.x == that.x && this.y == that.y
case _ => false
}
}
scala> val p = new Point(1, 2) p: Point = Point@2b
scala> val coll = HashSet(p)
coll: scala.collection.mutable.Set[Point] = Set(Point@2b)
scala> coll contains p res5: Boolean = true
scala> p.x += 1 // Changing p.x value
scala> coll contains p res7: Boolean = false
scala> coll.elements contains p res7: Boolean = true

16. coll.elements contains p
true
p.x += 1
After change value it
(x:mutable) assign to wrong hash
bucket
p.x=1 p.x=2
coll contains p
coll false Hash Bucket
Hash Bucket
Pitfall #3: Defining equals in terms of mutable fields
- In a manner of speaking, the point p “dropped out of sight” in the set coll even though it
still belonged to its elements.
- If you need a comparison that takes the current state of an object into account, you
should usually name it something else, not equals.

17. Pitfall #4: Failing to define equals as an equivalence relation:
- In scala, Any class specifies that equals must implement an equivalence relation on
non-null objects:
• It is reflexive: for any non-null value x , the expression x.equals(x) should return true.
• It is symmetric: for any non-null values x and y, x.equals(y) should return true if and
only if y.equals(x) returns true.
• It is transitive: for any non-null values x, y, and z, if x.equals(y) returns true and
y.equals(z) returns true, then x.equals(z) should return true.
• It is consistent: for any non-null values x and y, multiple invocations of x.equals(y)
should consistently return true or consistently return false, provided
no information used in equals comparisons on the objects is modified.
• For any non-null value x, x.equals(null) should return false.
- The definition of equals developed so far for class Point satisfies the contract for equals.
- However, things become more complicated once subclasses are considered.

18. Symmetric Problem:
class Point(val x: Int, val y: Int) {
override def hashCode = 41 * (41 + x) + y // Redefine hashCode
override def equals(other: Any) = other match { // Redefine equals()
case that: Point => this.x == that.x && this.y == that.y
case _ => false
}
}
object Color extends Enumeration {
val Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet = Value
}
class ColoredPoint(x: Int, y: Int, val color: Color.Value)
extends Point(x, y) { // Problem: equals not symmetric
override def equals(other: Any) = other match {
case that: ColoredPoint =>this.color == that.color &&
super.equals(that)
case _ => false
}
}
scala> val p = new Point(1, 2) p: Point = Point@2b
scala> val cp = new ColoredPoint(1, 2, Color.Red) cp: ColoredPoint =ColoredPoint@2b
scala> p equals cp res:0 Boolean : true
scala> cp equals p res:0 Boolean : false

19. Solution of Symmetric Problem but violated Transitivity contract:
class Point(val x: Int, val y: Int) {
override def hashCode = 41 * (41 + x) + y // Redefine hashCode
override def equals(other: Any) = other match { // Redefine equals()
case that: Point => this.x == that.x && this.y == that.y
case _ => false
}
}
object Color extends Enumeration {
val Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet = Value
}
class ColoredPoint(x: Int, y: Int, val color: Color.Value)
extends Point(x, y) { // Problem: equals not transitive
override def equals(other: Any) = other match {
case that: ColoredPoint =>this.color == that.color &&
super.equals(that)
case that:Point=>that equals this //new case to make symmetric
case _ => false
}
}
scala> p equals cp res:0 Boolean : true
scala> cp equals p res:0 Boolean : true

20. - Here’s a sequence of statements that demonstrates transitive. Define a point and two
colored points of different colors, all at the same position:
scala> var redp=new ColoredPoint(1,2,Color.Red)
redp: ColoredPoint = ColoredPoint@6bc
scala> var bluep=new ColoredPoint(1,2,Color.Blue)
bluep: ColoredPoint = ColoredPoint@6bc
scala> var p=new Point(1,2)
p: Point = Point@6bc
scala> redp == p res1: Boolean = true
scala> p == bluep res1: Boolean = true
scala> redp == bluep res1: Boolean = false
- Hence, the transitivity clause of equals’s contract is violated.
- One way to make equals stricter is to always treat objects of different classes as different.
- That could be achieved by modifying the equals methods in classes Point and
ColoredPoint.
- In class Point, you could add an extra comparison that checks whether the run-time class
of the other Point is exactly the same as this Point’s class, as follows:

21. Solution of Transitivity Problem:
class Point(val x: Int, val y: Int) {
override def hashCode = 41 * (41 + x) + y // Redefine hashCode
override def equals(that: Any) = other match { // Redefine equals()
case that: Point => this.x == that.x && this.y == that.y
&& this.getClass == that.getClass
case _ => false
}
}
object Color extends Enumeration {
val Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet = Value
}
class ColoredPoint(x: Int, y: Int, val color: Color.Value)
extends Point(x, y) {
override def equals(that: Any) = other match {
case that: ColoredPoint =>(this.color == that.color)&& super.equals(that)
case _ => false
}
}
scala> redp == p res:0 Boolean : false
scala> p == bluep res:0 Boolean : false
scala> redp == bluep res:0 Boolean : false

22. - Here, an instance of class Point is considered to be equal to some other instance of the
same class only if the objects have the same coordinates and they have the same run-
time class.
- Meaning .getClass on either object returns the same value.
- The new definitions satisfy symmetry and transitivity because now every comparison
between objects of different classes yields false.
- So a colored point can never be equal to a point.