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https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LANG-1084?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:all-tabpanel
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Sebb resolved LANG-1084.
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    Resolution: Won't Fix

> ObjectUtils should have type-safe equals() method
> -------------------------------------------------
>
>                 Key: LANG-1084
>                 URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LANG-1084
>             Project: Commons Lang
>          Issue Type: Improvement
>            Reporter: Thibault Kruse
>            Priority: Minor
>
> Commonly implementation of Object.equals() perform an instanceof check before 
> casting and then comparing properties.
> That means that any code like a.equals(b) does not imply any compile-time 
> type checking.
> However it can be very desirable to check types at compiletime in many 
> (though not all) situations. E.g. consider this code:
> Person a = getPersonViaX();
> Person b = getPersonViaY();
> assert !a.equals(b);
> this code is typesafe at compiletime. If getPersonViaY() changes the return 
> type to something that does not extend Person, this will fail to compile.
> Now consider this refactored:
> assert !getPersonViaX().equals(getPersonViaY());
> In this case the change to getPersonViaY() would go unnoticed, both at 
> compiletime AND at runtime (if equals merely returns false in the instanceof 
> check of the most common equals method design).
> Based on this blogpost:
> http://rickyclarkson.blogspot.de/2006/12/making-equalsobject-type-safe.html
> I suggest a typesafe equals method for situations like above:
> public static <T,U extends T> boolean equalT(T t,U u)
> { return t.equals(u); }
> and possible a typesafe notEquals method as well.
> I am dispassionate about naming of the method, might as well be 
> typeSafeEquals() or whatever fits best into apache commons.



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