Say that itemA == itemB and that itemB == itemC. How many objects are there?

A good answer might be:

Just one object (and three reference variables, each refering to it.)

You have previously seen the equals( String ) method of class String.

The equals( String ) method of class String tests if two Strings contain the same characters.

The equals( String ) method DOES look at the contents of objects. It detects "equivalence." The == operator detects "identity". For example,

String strA; // first object String strB; // second object strA = new String( "The Gingham Dog" ); strB = new String( "The Gingham Dog" ); if ( strA.equals( strB ) ) System.out.println( "This WILL print."); if ( strA == strB ) System.out.println( "This will NOT print.");

In this example, there are two objects (each object has its own identity, so == reports false). Each object contains equivalent data (so equals() reports true).

QUESTION 19:

If you made a Xerox^© copy of a sheet of paper, you would have two sheets of paper.

1. Are the sheets of paper separatate objects?
2. Is the first sheet == the second sheet?
3. Is the data on each sheet the same as on the other?
4. Is the first sheet equals() to the second sheet?