THIS PROJECT IS NOT BEING DEVELOPED ANYMORE. 1.0 is the first and the last release available

This library will help you to implement common methods like .equals() of .hashCode() using annotations.

See also the discussion on JavaLobby: http://java.dzone.com/announcements/jau-java-annotation-based-util

Example of usage:

import com.googlecode.jau.*;

@JAUEquals
@JAUHashCode
@JAUToString
@JAUCompare
@JAUCopy
@JAUToMap
public class UserData implements Comparable, Cloneable {
    private String firstName;
    private String secondName;
    private Date birthDate;
    private String login;
     
    @JAUEquals // not really necessary. All fields are included by default.
    private String[] rights = new String[] {"view"};
 
    @JAUEquals(include=false) // ignore listeners
    @JAUHashCode(include=false)
    @JAUCompare(include=false)
    private javax.swing.event.EventListenerList listeners = new javax.swing.event.EventListenerList();
 
    // constructor omitted 

    public boolean equals(Object obj) {
        return JAU.equals(this, obj);
    } 

    public int hashCode() {
        return JAU.hashCode(this);
    }

    public String toString() {
        return JAU.toString(this);
    }

    public int compareTo(Object obj) {
        return JAU.compare(this, obj);
    }

    // deep(!) copy
    public UserData clone() throws CloneNotSupportedException {
        UserData r = (UserData) super.clone(this);
        JAU.copy(this, r);
        return r;
    }
}

For example, the output for

JAU.toString(new String[][] {{"a", "b"}, {"1", "2"}})

would be

 java.lang.String[][java.lang.String["a", "b"], java.lang.String["1", "2"]]
 

see http://code.google.com/p/jau/source/browse/trunk/JAU/test/com/googlecode/jau/EqualsTest.java, http://code.google.com/p/jau/source/browse/trunk/JAU/test/com/googlecode/jau/ToStringTest.java and http://code.google.com/p/jau/source/browse/trunk/JAU/test/com/googlecode/jau/CompareTest.java for more test cases