How To Compare Objects With Another

I have the following method stubs to complete:

public class Item{
private int myId;
private int myInv;
public Item(int id, int inv){
myId = id;
myInv = inv;

[Code] .....

I do not understand how to complete the compareTo() method and the equals() method. I understand that the compareTo() to should return 1 if the argument is smaller -1 if its bigger and 0 if they are the same, but I do not understand how it's possible to compare the current object with the object passed in as the parameter.

This is what I tried for the compareTo():

public int compareTo(Item other){
return this.compareTo(other);
}

But my compiler tells me its a recursive call so I am not sure if I am doing this correctly.

Basically I am supposed to compare an object to another but I am not sure how to access the object that is not passed in as a parameter and compare it. Same goes for the equals(). This is what I tried for that (compiler also says its a recursive call):

public boolean equals(Item other){
return this.equals(other);
}