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There are contexts where object identity is meaningless, however. In mathematics, a 2 is a 2 is a 2. This 2 versus this other 2 doesn't have meaning. This can e

by grzm 9y ago

There are contexts where object identity is meaningless, however. In mathematics, a 2 is a 2 is a 2. This 2 versus this other 2 doesn't have meaning. This can easily trip people up, and arguing that object identity is more fundamental is meaningless. In many contexts, it's the value that's important, and object references actually get in the way. The many discussions on boxed versus unboxed and value types out there are evidence of this. I agree that in some sense you can say that "identity comparison is more fundamental that value comparison". As I added in my first comment, I think this is likely a tautology, and doesn't do much work for you at the end of the day. The important thing is keeping the two straight and doing the appropriate comparison depending on the context.

thaumasiotes 9y ago
In mathematical terms, what I'm saying is that equality is more fundamental than equivalence as defined by some other equivalence relation[1]. If you're considering integers according to their remainder when divided by 5, you can easily show that 4 is equal to 4, and that 4 is equal to -6. If you change your metric to remainder when divided by 3, you'll notice that 4 is still equal to 4, but no longer equal to -6. That is because 4 is fundamentally more similar to 4 than -6 is. [1] And as I've already mentioned, you can see that this is true by looking at the definition of an equivalence relation. They all treat everything as equivalent to itself.