Hello,

I have an abstract class named Xpto and two subclasses that extend it named Person and Car. I have also a class named Test with main() and a method foo() that verifies if two persons or cars (or any object of a class that extends Xpto) are equals. Thus, I redefined equals() in both Person and Car classes. Two persons are equal when they have the same name and two cars are equal when they have the same registration.

However, when I call foo() in the Test class I always get "false". I understand why: the equals() is not redefined in Xpto abstract class. So... how can I compare two persons or cars (or any object of a class that extends Xpto) in that foo() method?

In summary, this is the code I have:

public  abstract class Xpto {


}

public class Person extends Xpto{

        protected String name;

        public Person(String name){
                this.name = name;
        }

        public boolean equals(Person p){
                System.out.println("Person equals()?");
                return this.name.compareTo(p.name) == 0 ? true : false;
        }
}

public class Car extends Xpto{
        protected String registration;

        public Car(String registration){
                this.registration = registration;
        }

        public boolean equals(Car car){
                System.out.println("Car equals()?");
                return this.registration.compareTo(car.registration) == 0 ? true : false;
        }
}

public class Teste {

        public static void foo(Xpto xpto1, Xpto xpto2){
                if(xpto1.equals(xpto2))
                        System.out.println("xpto1.equals(xpto2) -> true");
                else
                        System.out.println("xpto1.equals(xpto2) -> false");

        }

        public static void main(String argv[]){
                Car c1 = new Car("ABC");
                Car c2 = new Car("DEF");
                Person p1 = new Person("Manel");
                Person p2 = new Person("Manel");

                foo(p1,p2);
        }
}