Saw the hashCode() method used in the FarmerWolfGoatState (a state representation) implementation, but do not know why there should be such an overriding.
equals() and hashCode() are the default methods of java class Object.
By default, if two objects are equal, then
public boolean equals(Object obj) {
return (this == obj);
}
Also, if two objects are equal according to the equals(Object) method, then calling the
hashCode
method on each of the two objects must produce the same integer result.
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What would happen if
Integer
did not override
equals()
and
hashCode()
? Nothing, if we never used an
Integer
as a key in a
HashMap
or other hash-based collection. However, if we were to use such an
Integer
object for a key in a
HashMap
, we would not be able to reliably retrieve the associated value, unless we used the exact same
Integer
instance in the
get()
call as we did in the
put()
call. This would require ensuring that we only use a single instance of the
Integer
object corresponding to a particular integer value throughout our program. Needless to say, this approach would be inconvenient and error prone.
Why does our root object class need
hashCode()
, when its discriminating ability is entirely subsumed by that of
equals()
? The
hashCode()
method exists purely for efficiency.
Deciding whether, and how, to override
equals()
requires a little more judgment. In the case of simple immutable value classes, such as
Integer
(and in fact for nearly all immutable classes), the choice is fairly obvious -- equality should be based on the equality of the underlying object state. In the case of
Integer
, the object's only state is the underlying integer value.
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So sometimes if we want to change the default equality definition of object, and only use their state, instead of every part of ojbect, as the rule to judege their equality, we need to override the equals() method. Then we need also to override hashCode() so as to keep the consistence.
It seems to be enough to provide equlas() method, adding another one hashCode() is just in order to improve the efficiency for the for the benefit of hashtables such as those provided by
java.util.Hashtable.
reference:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/j-jtp05273.html
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/api/java/lang/Object.html#hashCode()