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  4. Non-final field referenced in 'equals()'

Non-final field referenced in 'equals()'

Last modified: 03 December 2024

Reports implementations of equals() that access non-final variables. Such access may result in equals() returning different results at different points in the object's lifecycle, which may in turn cause problems when using the standard collections classes.

Example:

public class Person {
  private String lastName;

  @Override
  public boolean equals(Object obj) {
    ...
    Person other = (Person) obj;
    if (lastName == null) {
      if (!lastName.equals(other.lastName)) {
      return false;
    ...
    }
  }
}

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NonFinalFieldReferenceInEquals
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Inspection Details

By default bundled with:

IntelliJ IDEA 2024.3, Qodana for JVM 2024.3,

Can be installed with plugin:

Java, 243.23126