How to test array equality in Java

Two arrays are equal if all their values are equal and in the same order.

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Arrays.equals()

The Arrays.equals method can be used to check if two arrays are equal.

This method takes two arrays as arguments.

import java.util.Arrays;



class ArrayEquality {

    public static void main( String args[] ) {

        int [] arr1 = new int [] {20, 5, -95, 43, 17};

        int [] arr2 = new int [] {20, 5, -95, 43, 17};

        System.out.println(Arrays.equals(arr1, arr2));

    }

}

Note that a shallow comparison is performed, i.e., it checks:

arr1[0].equals(arr2[0]),
arr1[1].equals(arr2[1]),
...

This is not suitable for multidimensional arrays.

Arrays.deepEquals()

The Arrays.deepEquals() method is a more effective way of testing the equality of multidimensional arrays.

This method takes two arrays as arguments.

import java.util.Arrays;
class ArrayEquality {
    public static void main( String args[] ) {
        int [][] arr1 = {{20, 5}, 
                         {-95, 43}, 
                         {17, 22}};
        int [][] arr2 = {{20, 5}, 
                         {-95, 43}, 
                         {17, 22}};
        System.out.println(Arrays.deepEquals(arr1, arr2));
    }
}

This method recurses on the arrays and compares the actual elements. It can be used with single-dimension arrays as well.

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