If i compared the instance variable of class with the object what will it compare?

public class Notepad {
    private String name;
    private int year;
 
    public Notepad(String name, int year) {
        this.name = name;
        this.year = year;
    }

    public boolean equals(Object object) {
        if (object == null || this.getClass() != object.getClass()) {
            return false;
        }

        if (object == this) {
            return true;
        }

        Notepad compared = (Notepad) object;

        return this.name.equals(compared);
    }
}

Notepad basics = new Notepad("Equals basics", 2000);
Notepad advanced = new Notepad("Equals advanced", 2001);

System.out.println(basics.equals(basics));
System.out.println(basics.equals(advanced));
System.out.println(basics.equals(new Notepad("Equals basics", 2000)));
System.out.println(basics.equals(new Notepad("Equals basics", 2001)));

In the above code at the last two lines when i compare the basics object it returns false.In the equals method when i check this.name.equals(compared) what does it actually compares?

return this.name.equals(compared);

Here you are comparing name field of NotePad object with the object of NotePad.

You should compare with the name field of the compared

return this.name.equals(compared.name);

What happened when compare String with NotePad object ?

Doc for String equals method

> Compares this string to the specified object. The result is true if
> and only if the argument is not null and is a String object that
> represents the same sequence of characters as this object.

So as comparing Notpad object is not a String object it will return false.

this.name will not be compared to anything in the Notepad object. Similarly to your Notepad.equals method, the String.equals will check if the object supplied is not null first, and then if it is of an appropriate class, that is a String. A Notepad is not a String so here the comparison ends. No members of the given object are tested.

this.name returns String which is an object.

You are comparing this.name with object compared of class Notepad. If you want to compare the names use:

this.name.equals(compared.name)

If you want to have the same condition return true, override equals() and hashCode() methods of Project class.

equals() returns true only if int value returned by hashCode()method for both the objects is equal.

Use getClass() method to compare Objects...
I hope this code will help you...

public class Notepad {

    private String name;
    private int year;

    public Notepad(String name, int year) {
        this.name = name;
        this.year = year;
    }

    public boolean equals(Object object) {
        if (object == null || this.getClass() != object.getClass()) {
            return false;
        }

        if (object.getClass() == this.getClass()) {
            return true;
        }

        Notepad compared = (Notepad) object;

        return object.equals(compared);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Notepad basics = new Notepad("Equals basics", 2000);
        Notepad advanced = new Notepad("Equals advanced", 2001);

        System.out.println(basics.equals(basics));
        System.out.println(basics.equals(advanced));
        System.out.println(basics.equals(new Notepad("Equals basics", 2000)));
        System.out.println(basics.equals(new Notepad("Equals basics", 2001)));
    }
}