getSource method and object comparison

[Andrew Symantec]

hi all, I have a question troubled me for long time.
Too often, in Swing we can see statements like this:
JButton button1 = new JButton();
JButton button2 = new JButton();
.......
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
{
Object source = e.getSource();
if ( source == button1)
{
........
}
}
The problem is, the type of source is Object, the type of button1 is JButton, how can they do a equality comparison? For two objects, normaly if they have same object type, they can compare for quality.
Can someone help me out?
Thanks
[ August 09, 2003: Message edited by: Andrew Symantec ]

[Nathan Pruett]

Because == tests the equality of the reference, not the equality of the object data (that is what .equals() is for). The only way == is going to return true on test of two object references is if both are simply different references to the same object.

String s1 = new String( "Hello World" );
String s2 = s1;
String s3 = new String( "Hello World" );

In this case s1 == s2 returns true, but s1 == s3 returns false. They have equivalent data, but reference different objects. s1.equals( s2 ) and s1.equals( s3 ) both return true, because .equals() tests data equivalence.
[ August 09, 2003: Message edited by: Nathan Pruett ]

[Andrew Symantec]

Thanks Nathan.
[ August 09, 2003: Message edited by: Andrew Symantec ]