Equals method in a generic n-ary tree

Question

I have this n-ary tree implementation, where each tree class stores the data and it's children in an array.

Also there is my incomplete method equals() .

public class ArrayNTree<T extends Comparable<T>> implements NTree<T>, Cloneable {

/* Data of the tree*/
private T data;

/* Primary array to store the children */
private ArrayNTree<T>[] children;

...

public boolean equals(Object other) { // FIXME

    if (this == other)
        return true;

    if (other == null)
        return false;

    if(other instanceof ArrayNTree)
        return sameTree( (ArrayNTree<T>) other );

    return false;
}

private boolean sameTree(ArrayNTree<T> xpto) {
    return (this.data == xpto.data &&
            //this.children == xpto.children && ???????
            this.size == xpto.size);
}

My main doubt is how do I go through every child and compare with the other tree since this is an array I think it makes the job a little harder

Answer 1

First, if data or size is different return false

Then, check its children

---

1. one by one:

    private boolean sameTree(ArrayNTree<T> xpto) { if(this.data != xpto.data || this.size != xpto.size) return false; for(int i = 0; i<this.children.length: i++){ if(!this.children[i].equals(xpto.children[i])) return false; } return true; } 

2. Using Arrays.deepEquals()

    private boolean sameTree(ArrayNTree<T> xpto) { return this.data == xpto.data && this.size != xpto.size && Arrays.deepEquals(this.children, xpto.equals); }