What's the difference between EntityPlayer.getCurrentEquippedItem(), EntityPlayer.getItemInUse() and EntityPlayer.getHeldItem()? They all return ItemStacks. When my block's onBlockActivated method is fired, I want to check if what the player is holding is a wrench or wrench-like item, so I guess I'd want to use getHeldItem.

I used getCurrentEquippedItem and it works fine for my item, but go on ahead and test the difference

    public ItemStack getCurrentEquippedItem()
    {
        return this.inventory.getCurrentItem();
    }

    public ItemStack getHeldItem()
    {
        return this.inventory.getCurrentItem();
    }

    @SideOnly(Side.CLIENT)
    public ItemStack getItemInUse()
    {
        return this.itemInUse;
    }

 

Funny - 1st two are same, doesn't matter which you use, I'd expect one of them to be deprecated soon (hopefully, this is confusing, indeed).

 

As to getItemInUse - it can/is used only client side when you hold right-click with item. the itemInUse field will be set to item held and used by client side for animation most likely (e.g: bow-pulling)