Java – Why Are These == but Not `equals()`?

equalsjava

I'm a bit confused about the way Java treats == and equals() when it comes to int, Integer and other types of numbers. For example:

Integer X = 9000;
int x = 9000;
Short Y = 9000;
short y = 9000;
List<Boolean> results = new ArrayList<Boolean>();
// results.add(X == Y); DOES NOT COMPILE        1)
results.add(Y == 9000);                      // 2)
results.add(X == y);                         // 3)
results.add(X.equals(x));                    // 4)
results.add(X.equals(Y));                    // 5)
results.add(X.equals(y));                    // 6)
System.out.println(results);

outputs (maybe you should make your guess first):

[true, true, true, false, false]
  1. That X == Y does not compile is to be expected, being different objects.
  2. I'm a little surprised that Y == 9 is true, given that 9 is by default an int, and given that 1) didn't even compile. Note that you can't put an int into a method expecting a Short, yet here they are equal.
  3. This is surprising for the same reason as two, but it seems worse.
  4. Not surprising, as x is autoboxed to and Integer.
  5. Not surprising, as objects in different classes should not be equal().
  6. What?? X == y is true but X.equals(y) is false? Shouldn't == always be stricter than equals()?

I'd appreciate it if anyone can help me make sense of this. For what reason do == and equals() behave this way?

Edit: I have changed 9 to 9000 to show that this behavior is not related to the any unusual ways that the integers from -128 to 127 behave.

2nd Edit: OK, if you think you understand this stuff, you should consider the following, just to make sure:

Integer X = 9000;
Integer Z = 9000;
short y = 9000;
List<Boolean> results = new ArrayList<Boolean>();
results.add(X == Z);                      // 1)
results.add(X == y);                      // 2)
results.add(X.equals(Z));                 // 3)
results.add(X.equals(y));                 // 4)
System.out.println(results);

outputs:

[false, true, true, false]

The reason, as best as I understand it:

  1. Different instance, so different.
  2. X unboxed, then same value, so equal.
  3. Same value, so equal.
  4. y cannot be boxed to an Integer so cannot be equal.

Best Answer

(small) Integer instances are cached, so the invariant x == y is holded for small instances (actually -127 +128, depends on JVM):

Integer a = 10;
Integer b = 10;

assert(a == b); // ok, same instance reused

a = 1024;
b = 1024;

assert(a == b); // fail, not the same instance....
assert(a.equals(b)); // but same _value_

EDIT

4) and 5) yield false because equals check types: X is an Integer whereas Y is a Short. This is the java.lang.Integer#equals method:

public boolean equals(Object obj) {
    if (obj instanceof Integer) {
        return value == ((Integer)obj).intValue();
    }

    return false;
}
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