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.

The equals method for class Object implements the most discriminating possible equivalence relation on objects; that is, for any non-null reference values x and y, this method returns true if and only if x and y refer to the same object (x == y has the value true).

Note that it is generally necessary to override the hashCode method whenever this method is overridden, so as to maintain the general contract for the hashCode method, which states that equal objects must have equal hash codes.

Fills in the execution stack trace. This method records within this Throwable object information about the current state of the stack frames for the current thread.

Returns the cause of this throwable or null if the cause is nonexistent or unknown. (The cause is the throwable that caused this throwable to get thrown.)

This implementation returns the cause that was supplied via one of the constructors requiring a Throwable, or that was set after creation with the method. While it is typically unnecessary to override this method, a subclass can override it to return a cause set by some other means. This is appropriate for a "legacy chained throwable" that predates the addition of chained exceptions to Throwable. Note that it is not necessary to override any of the PrintStackTrace methods, all of which invoke the getCause method to determine the cause of a throwable.

Returns the runtime class of an object. That Class object is the object that is locked by static synchronized methods of the represented class.

Creates a localized description of this throwable. Subclasses may override this method in order to produce a locale-specific message. For subclasses that do not override this method, the default implementation returns the same result as getMessage().

Returns the detail message string of this throwable.

Provides programmatic access to the stack trace information printed by . Returns an array of stack trace elements, each representing one stack frame. The zeroth element of the array (assuming the array's length is non-zero) represents the top of the stack, which is the last method invocation in the sequence. Typically, this is the point at which this throwable was created and thrown. The last element of the array (assuming the array's length is non-zero) represents the bottom of the stack, which is the first method invocation in the sequence.

Some virtual machines may, under some circumstances, omit one or more stack frames from the stack trace. In the extreme case, a virtual machine that has no stack trace information concerning this throwable is permitted to return a zero-length array from this method. Generally speaking, the array returned by this method will contain one element for every frame that would be printed by printStackTrace.

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

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(Object) 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 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 hashtables.

As much as is reasonably practical, the hashCode method defined by class Object does return distinct integers for distinct objects. (This is typically implemented by converting the internal address of the object into an integer, but this implementation technique is not required by the Java^TM programming language.)

Initializes the cause of this throwable to the specified value. (The cause is the throwable that caused this throwable to get thrown.)

This method can be called at most once. It is generally called from within the constructor, or immediately after creating the throwable. If this throwable was created with or , this method cannot be called even once.

Wakes up a single thread that is waiting on this object's monitor. If any threads are waiting on this object, one of them is chosen to be awakened. The choice is arbitrary and occurs at the discretion of the implementation. A thread waits on an object's monitor by calling one of the wait methods.

The awakened thread will not be able to proceed until the current thread relinquishes the lock on this object. The awakened thread will compete in the usual manner with any other threads that might be actively competing to synchronize on this object; for example, the awakened thread enjoys no reliable privilege or disadvantage in being the next thread to lock this object.

This method should only be called by a thread that is the owner of this object's monitor. A thread becomes the owner of the object's monitor in one of three ways:

• By executing a synchronized instance method of that object.
• By executing the body of a synchronized statement that synchronizes on the object.
• For objects of type Class, by executing a synchronized static method of that class.

Only one thread at a time can own an object's monitor.

Wakes up all threads that are waiting on this object's monitor. A thread waits on an object's monitor by calling one of the wait methods.

The awakened threads will not be able to proceed until the current thread relinquishes the lock on this object. The awakened threads will compete in the usual manner with any other threads that might be actively competing to synchronize on this object; for example, the awakened threads enjoy no reliable privilege or disadvantage in being the next thread to lock this object.

This method should only be called by a thread that is the owner of this object's monitor. See the notify method for a description of the ways in which a thread can become the owner of a monitor.

Prints this throwable and its backtrace to the standard error stream. This method prints a stack trace for this Throwable object on the error output stream that is the value of the field System.err. The first line of output contains the result of the method for this object. Remaining lines represent data previously recorded by the method . The format of this information depends on the implementation, but the following example may be regarded as typical:

 java.lang.NullPointerException
         at MyClass.mash(MyClass.java:9)
         at MyClass.crunch(MyClass.java:6)
         at MyClass.main(MyClass.java:3)
 

This example was produced by running the program:

 class MyClass {
     public static void main(String[] args) {
         crunch(null);
     }
     static void crunch(int[] a) {
         mash(a);
     }
     static void mash(int[] b) {
         System.out.println(b[0]);
     }
 }
 

The backtrace for a throwable with an initialized, non-null cause should generally include the backtrace for the cause. The format of this information depends on the implementation, but the following example may be regarded as typical:

 HighLevelException: MidLevelException: LowLevelException
         at Junk.a(Junk.java:13)
         at Junk.main(Junk.java:4)
 Caused by: MidLevelException: LowLevelException
         at Junk.c(Junk.java:23)
         at Junk.b(Junk.java:17)
         at Junk.a(Junk.java:11)
         ... 1 more
 Caused by: LowLevelException
         at Junk.e(Junk.java:30)
         at Junk.d(Junk.java:27)
         at Junk.c(Junk.java:21)
         ... 3 more
 

Note the presence of lines containing the characters "...". These lines indicate that the remainder of the stack trace for this exception matches the indicated number of frames from the bottom of the stack trace of the exception that was caused by this exception (the "enclosing" exception). This shorthand can greatly reduce the length of the output in the common case where a wrapped exception is thrown from same method as the "causative exception" is caught. The above example was produced by running the program:

 public class Junk {
     public static void main(String args[]) { 
         try {
             a();
         } catch(HighLevelException e) {
             e.printStackTrace();
         }
     }
     static void a() throws HighLevelException {
         try {
             b();
         } catch(MidLevelException e) {
             throw new HighLevelException(e);
         }
     }
     static void b() throws MidLevelException {
         c();
     }   
     static void c() throws MidLevelException {
         try {
             d();
         } catch(LowLevelException e) {
             throw new MidLevelException(e);
         }
     }
     static void d() throws LowLevelException { 
        e();
     }
     static void e() throws LowLevelException {
         throw new LowLevelException();
     }
 }

 class HighLevelException extends Exception {
     HighLevelException(Throwable cause) { super(cause); }
 }

 class MidLevelException extends Exception {
     MidLevelException(Throwable cause)  { super(cause); }
 }
 
 class LowLevelException extends Exception {
 }
 

Prints this throwable and its backtrace to the specified print stream.

Prints this throwable and its backtrace to the specified print writer.

Sets the stack trace elements that will be returned by and printed by and related methods. This method, which is designed for use by RPC frameworks and other advanced systems, allows the client to override the default stack trace that is either generated by when a throwable is constructed or deserialized when a throwable is read from a serialization stream.

Returns a short description of this throwable. If this Throwable object was created with a non-null detail message string, then the result is the concatenation of three strings:

• The name of the actual class of this object
• ": " (a colon and a space)
• The result of the #getMessage method for this object

If this Throwable object was created with a null detail message string, then the name of the actual class of this object is returned.

Causes current thread to wait until another thread invokes the method or the method for this object. In other words, this method behaves exactly as if it simply performs the call wait(0).

The current thread must own this object's monitor. The thread releases ownership of this monitor and waits until another thread notifies threads waiting on this object's monitor to wake up either through a call to the notify method or the notifyAll method. The thread then waits until it can re-obtain ownership of the monitor and resumes execution.

As in the one argument version, interrupts and spurious wakeups are possible, and this method should always be used in a loop:

     synchronized (obj) {
         while (<condition does not hold>)
             obj.wait();
         ... // Perform action appropriate to condition
     }
 

This method should only be called by a thread that is the owner of this object's monitor. See the notify method for a description of the ways in which a thread can become the owner of a monitor.

Causes current thread to wait until either another thread invokes the method or the method for this object, or a specified amount of time has elapsed.

The current thread must own this object's monitor.

This method causes the current thread (call it T) to place itself in the wait set for this object and then to relinquish any and all synchronization claims on this object. Thread T becomes disabled for thread scheduling purposes and lies dormant until one of four things happens:

• Some other thread invokes the notify method for this object and thread T happens to be arbitrarily chosen as the thread to be awakened.
• Some other thread invokes the notifyAll method for this object.
• Some other thread interrupts thread T.
• The specified amount of real time has elapsed, more or less. If timeout is zero, however, then real time is not taken into consideration and the thread simply waits until notified.

The thread T is then removed from the wait set for this object and re-enabled for thread scheduling. It then competes in the usual manner with other threads for the right to synchronize on the object; once it has gained control of the object, all its synchronization claims on the object are restored to the status quo ante - that is, to the situation as of the time that the wait method was invoked. Thread T then returns from the invocation of the wait method. Thus, on return from the wait method, the synchronization state of the object and of thread T is exactly as it was when the wait method was invoked.

A thread can also wake up without being notified, interrupted, or timing out, a so-called spurious wakeup. While this will rarely occur in practice, applications must guard against it by testing for the condition that should have caused the thread to be awakened, and continuing to wait if the condition is not satisfied. In other words, waits should always occur in loops, like this one:

     synchronized (obj) {
         while (<condition does not hold>)
             obj.wait(timeout);
         ... // Perform action appropriate to condition
     }
 

(For more information on this topic, see Section 3.2.3 in Doug Lea's "Concurrent Programming in Java (Second Edition)" (Addison-Wesley, 2000), or Item 50 in Joshua Bloch's "Effective Java Programming Language Guide" (Addison-Wesley, 2001).

If the current thread is interrupted by another thread while it is waiting, then an InterruptedException is thrown. This exception is not thrown until the lock status of this object has been restored as described above.

Note that the wait method, as it places the current thread into the wait set for this object, unlocks only this object; any other objects on which the current thread may be synchronized remain locked while the thread waits.

This method should only be called by a thread that is the owner of this object's monitor. See the notify method for a description of the ways in which a thread can become the owner of a monitor.

Causes current thread to wait until another thread invokes the method or the method for this object, or some other thread interrupts the current thread, or a certain amount of real time has elapsed.

This method is similar to the wait method of one argument, but it allows finer control over the amount of time to wait for a notification before giving up. The amount of real time, measured in nanoseconds, is given by:

 1000000*timeout+nanos

In all other respects, this method does the same thing as the method of one argument. In particular, wait(0, 0) means the same thing as wait(0).

The current thread must own this object's monitor. The thread releases ownership of this monitor and waits until either of the following two conditions has occurred:

• Another thread notifies threads waiting on this object's monitor to wake up either through a call to the notify method or the notifyAll method.
• The timeout period, specified by timeout milliseconds plus nanos nanoseconds arguments, has elapsed.

The thread then waits until it can re-obtain ownership of the monitor and resumes execution.

As in the one argument version, interrupts and spurious wakeups are possible, and this method should always be used in a loop:

     synchronized (obj) {
         while (<condition does not hold>)
             obj.wait(timeout, nanos);
         ... // Perform action appropriate to condition
     }
 

This method should only be called by a thread that is the owner of this object's monitor. See the notify method for a description of the ways in which a thread can become the owner of a monitor.