[ACCUMULO-4726] Don't compare Value with byte[] in Value.equals()

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Resolved
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Fix Version/s: 2.0.0
• Component/s: core
• Labels: pull-request-available release_notes
• Assignee: Christopher Tubbs
• Reporter: Christopher Tubbs
• Created: 19/Oct/17 21:33
• Updated: 01/Nov/17 21:18
• Resolved: 01/Nov/17 21:18

Description

Value.equals(Object) currently supports directly comparing Value objects with a byte[] parameter. This is bad practice, and should not be encouraged, as it exploits a pre-generics Java behavior of accepting "Object" as input, and is prone to user error because of lack of type safety. It is not used by any Accumulo code, except for a test, but could be used by users, since this is public API.

I suggest changing this behavior in 2.0.0 and replacing that functionality with a contentEquals(byte[]) method. This will need to be documented in the release notes in case any users are (unlikely, but possible) comparing Value with byte[] in this way.

Issue Links

• links to: GitHub Pull Request #313