equals(…) and equalsIgnoreCase(…)

Question

Why do we have equals() and equalsIgnoreCase() as two different methods, when equals() could have been overloaded with a special

Answer 1

I think they just chose one of the alternatives. .NET chose the other. StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase etc.

Definitely what you are suggesting and [even better what] .NET implemented would have been more flexible for different cultures etc. In fact I don't even know what culture they use in this ignore case. I guess Current culture.