Is there a Java standard “both null or equal” static method?

Question

To save some typing and clarify my code, is there a standard version of the following method?

public static boolean bothNullOrEqual(Object x, Object y) {
  return ( x == null ? y == null : x.equals(y) );
}

Answer 1

With Java 7 you can now directly do a null safe equals:

Objects.equals(x, y)

(The Jakarta Commons library ObjectUtils.equals() has become obsolete with Java 7)

Answer 2

if by some chance you are have access to the Jakarta Commons library there is ObjectUtils.equals() and lots of other useful functions.

EDIT: misread the question initially

Answer 3

If you are using <1.7 but have Guava available: Objects.equal(x, y)