Question

I’ve a java.lang.Character bean property which I’d like to compare in EL as below:

#{q.isMultiple eq 'Y'}

It does not ever evaluate true.

How is this caused and how can I solve it?

Answer 1

In contrary to “plain Java”, whether you single or double-quote your literals in EL, they represent both java.lang.String instances. Your method is returning a java.lang.Character instance, so this will never return true in an equals() call between both instances.

The solution is to change it to a String or boolean return type. The property name isMultiple strongly suggests a boolean. You only need to remove that is from the property name and keep it in the getter method.

private boolean multiple;

public boolean isMultiple() {
    return multiple;
}

#{q.multiple}

An alternative is using an enum. This would only be applicable if you have more than two states (or perhaps three, a Boolean also includes null).