Description of the attribute.

Name of the attribute.

True if the attribute is required. What "required" means can depend on the type of object, but in general it should mean that the object is not "valid" if a value isn't set.

Return the stored type of the given attribute. Include any applicable generics information.

Implements java.lang.Comparable.compareTo.

Doc from java.lang.Comparable.compareTo.

Compares this object with the specified object for order. Returns a negative integer, zero, or a positive integer as this object is less than, equal to, or greater than the specified object.

The implementor must ensure signum(x.compareTo(y)) == -signum(y.compareTo(x)) for all x and y. (This implies that x.compareTo(y) must throw an exception if and only if y.compareTo(x) throws an exception.)

The implementor must also ensure that the relation is transitive: (x.compareTo(y) > 0 && y.compareTo(z) > 0) implies x.compareTo(z) > 0.

Finally, the implementor must ensure that x.compareTo(y)==0 implies that signum(x.compareTo(z)) == signum(y.compareTo(z)), for all z.

Parameters

o:ObjectMetaData.Attribute

the object to be compared.

Returns:int

a negative integer, zero, or a positive integer as this object is less than, equal to, or greater than the specified object.

Annotations

@Override

Overrides java.lang.Object.equals.

Doc from java.lang.Object.equals.

Indicates whether some other object is "equal to" this one.

The equals method implements an equivalence relation on non-null object references:

• It is reflexive: for any non-null reference value x, x.equals(x) should return true.
• It is symmetric: for any non-null reference values x and y, x.equals(y) should return true if and only if y.equals(x) returns true.
• It is transitive: for any non-null reference values x, y, and z, if x.equals(y) returns true and y.equals(z) returns true, then x.equals(z) should return true.
• It is consistent: for any non-null reference values x and y, multiple invocations of x.equals(y) consistently return true or consistently return false, provided no information used in equals comparisons on the objects is modified.
• For any non-null reference value x, x.equals(null) should return false.

An equivalence relation partitions the elements it operates on into equivalence classes; all the members of an equivalence class are equal to each other. Members of an equivalence class are substitutable for each other, at least for some purposes.

Parameters

obj:Object

the reference object with which to compare.

Returns:boolean

true if this object is the same as the obj argument; false otherwise.

Annotations

@Override

Overrides java.lang.Object.hashCode.

Doc from java.lang.Object.hashCode.

Returns a hash code value for this object. This method is supported for the benefit of hash tables such as those provided by java.util.HashMap.

The general contract of hashCode is:

• Whenever it is invoked on the same object more than once during an execution of a Java application, the hashCode method must consistently return the same integer, provided no information used in equals comparisons on the object is modified. This integer need not remain consistent from one execution of an application to another execution of the same application.
• If two objects are equal according to the equals method, then calling the hashCode method on each of the two objects must produce the same integer result.
• It is not required that if two objects are unequal according to the equals method, then calling the hashCode method on each of the two objects must produce distinct integer results. However, the programmer should be aware that producing distinct integer results for unequal objects may improve the performance of hash tables.

Returns:int

a hash code value for this object

Annotations

@Override