7.10 The toString and equals Methods
In addition to constructors, mutator methods, and accessor methods, a well-designed class usually implements the toString and equals methods.
The toString method is called automatically when an object reference is used as a String. For example, the toString method for an object is called when the object reference is used with, or as, a parameter to System.out.println. The function of the toString method is to return a printable representation of the object data.
The equals method is designed to compare two objects for equality; that is, it typically returns true if the corresponding instance variables in both objects are equal in value. The equals method takes an Object reference parameter that is expected ...
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