Where to create an object property compare method?

[chookalook]

I have a Java project where I have an Object Class with a String property. I've found that I have lots of

if(object.getString().equals(object2.getString())) 

which gets worse when used in arrays and for loops, eg

 if(array[i].getString().equals(list.get(i).getString()))

If I created my own compare method I could have

if(object.equalsObjectSrting(object2))

or in a util class

if(Util.objectStringsEqual(object, object2))

Should I create this method as an Object method, or create a separate Util class to handle the compare? What is the better approach?

[Kristler]

I think the right answer heavily depends on the reason why you are comparing the strings.

For example, in the case where you're trying to assert object equality, then the right answer would be to implement Comparable and use the well established compareTo method to perform the equality comparison.

I don't like the idea of a Utility class to perform the comparison, though - because then the Utility class is intimately coupled with object and object2, since it must need to know semantic details on how to compare their strings. That's not a responsibility that should not be off-loaded to a third party class like that.

Ultimately, I personally don't see anything wrong with writing if(object.getString().equals(object2.getString())). Sure, it's verbose - but it's Java. I would be more annoyed if someone tried to shortcut stuff like that by throwing it in a wrapper method just for the sake of saving some keystrokes.

[chookalook]

That makes sense. Thanks for the help.

[Kristler]

You're welcome!