I have a class like this:

data class Thing(val name: String, val complexObject: ComplexType? = null)

And a test like this:

import nl.jqno.equalsverifier.EqualsVerifier
import org.junit.Test

class ThingTest {
    @Test
    fun `test equals and hashCode`() {
        EqualsVerifier.forClass(Thing::class.java)
            .verify()
    }
}

Now I want to completely ignore complexObject in EqualsVerifier. It’s a type it cannot instantiate, and it asks me to provide a prefab object (withPrefabValues) for it. This would work, but my Thing is used in a lot of places and other people write a lot of tests for classes that contain a Thing, and the complexObject should be none of their concern. Comparisons of this object are not necessary for these downstream tests to work.

Can I somehow mark complexObject as always being null for the purposes of EqualsVerifier?

Ideally without touching all tests which verify objects which transitively use a Thing, but if it’s only possible test by test, then this would already be an improvement over having to pass a prefab object every time (because withPrefabValues needs at least one real object that is not null).