SuspiciousEqualsMethodName

The method name and parameter number are suspiciously close to equals(Object), which may mean you are intending to override the equals(Object) method.

This rule is defined by the following XPath expression:

        
//MethodDeclarator[
(
@Image = 'equals'
  and count(FormalParameters/*) = 1
  and not (FormalParameters/FormalParameter/Type/ReferenceType/ClassOrInterfaceType
   [@Image = 'Object' or @Image = 'java.lang.Object'])
)
or
@Image='equal'
 and count(FormalParameters/*) = 1
 and (FormalParameters/FormalParameter/Type/ReferenceType/ClassOrInterfaceType
  [@Image = 'Object' or @Image = 'java.lang.Object'])

]
        
                    

Example:

                
        
public class Foo {
 public int equals(Object o) {
 // oops, this probably was supposed to be boolean equals
 }
 public boolean equals(String s) {
 // oops, this probably was supposed to be equals(Object)
 }
}