Overriding "equals" method: how to figure out the type of the parameter?
generics, java, type-safety
Solution
You can do it by retaining a reference to `Class<E>` type. However, in my opinion, equality tests should be about the values the objects represent rather than the concrete types the values get expressed.
A classic example of this is the Collections API for example. `new ArrayList<String>().equals(new LinkedList<Object>())` returns `true`. While these have completely different types, they represent the same value, namely "an empty collection".
Personally, should two `Tuple`s that represent the same data (e.g. `("a", "b")`) be not equal, because one is of type `Tuple<String>` while the other is `Tuple<Object>`?
Problem
I'm trying to override `equals` method for a parameterized class. ``` @Override public boolean equals(Object obj) { if (this == obj) return true; if (obj == null) return false; if (!(obj instanceof Tuple)) return false; Tuple<E> other = (Tuple<E>) obj; //unchecked cast if (!a0.equals(other.a0) && !a0.equals(other.a1)) { return false; } if (!a1.equals(other.a1) && !a1.equals(other.a0)) { return false; } return true; } ``` How can I make sure that `<E>` of the `other` object is the same as `this`?