Do I need to implement hashCode() and equals() methods? - java

If I have a map and an object as map key, are the default hash and equals methods enough?
class EventInfo{
private String name;
private Map<String, Integer> info
}
Then I want to create a map:
Map<EventInfo, String> map = new HashMap<EventInfo, String>();
Do I have to explicitly implement hashCode() and equals()? Thanks.

Yes, you do. HashMaps work by computing the hash code of the key and using that as a base point. If the hashCode function isn't overriden (by you), then it will use the memory address, and equals will be the same as ==.
If you're in Eclipse, it'll generate them for you. Click Source menu → Generate hashCode() and equals().
If you don't have Eclipse, here's some that should work. (I generated these in Eclipse, as described above.)
#Override
public int hashCode() {
final int prime = 31;
int result = 1;
result = prime * result + ((info == null) ? 0 : info.hashCode());
result = prime * result + ((name == null) ? 0 : name.hashCode());
return result;
}
#Override
public boolean equals(Object obj) {
if (this == obj) {
return true;
}
if (obj == null) {
return false;
}
if (!(obj instanceof EventInfo)) {
return false;
}
EventInfo other = (EventInfo) obj;
if (info == null) {
if (other.info != null) {
return false;
}
} else if (!info.equals(other.info)) {
return false;
}
if (name == null) {
if (other.name != null) {
return false;
}
} else if (!name.equals(other.name)) {
return false;
}
return true;
}

Yes, you need them else you won't be able to compare two EventInfo (and your map won't work).

Strictly speaking, no. The default implementations of hashCode() and equals() will produce results that ought to work. See http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/lang/Object.html#hashCode()
My understanding is that the default implementation of hashCode() works by taking the object's address in memory and converting to integer, and the default implementation of equals() returns true only if the two objects are actually the same object.
In practice, you could (and should) probably improve on both of those implementations. For example, both methods should ignore object members that aren't important. In addition, equals() might want to recursively compare references in the object.
In your particular case, you might define equals() as true if the two objects refer to the same string or the two strings are equal and the two maps are the same or they are equal. I think WChargin gave you pretty good implementations.

Depends on what you want to happen. If two different EventInfo instances with the same name and info should result in two different keys, then you don't need to implement equals and hashCode.
So
EventInfo info1 = new EventInfo();
info1.setName("myname");
info1.setInfo(null);
EventInfo info2 = new EventInfo();
info2.setName("myname");
info2.setInfo(null);
info1.equals(info2) would return false and info1.hashCode() would return a different value to info2.hashCode().
Therefore, when you are adding them to your map:
map.put(info1, "test1");
map.put(info2, "test2");
you would have two different entries.
Now, that may be desired behaviour. For example, if your EventInfo is collecting different events, two distinct events with the same data may well want to be desired to be two different entries.
The equals and hashCode contracts is also applicable in a Set.
So for example, if your event info contains mouse clicks, it may well be desired that you would want to end up with:
Set<EventInfo> collectedEvents = new HashSet<EventInfo>();
collectedEvents.add(info1);
collectedEvents.add(info2);
2 collected events instead of just 1...
Hope I'm making sense here...
EDIT:
If however, the above set and map should only contain a single entry, then you could use apache commons EqualsBuilder and HashCodeBuilder to simplify the implementation of equals and hashCode:
#Override
public boolean equals(Object obj) {
if (obj instanceof EventInfo) {
EventInfo other = (EventInfo) obj;
EqualsBuilder builder = new EqualsBuilder();
builder.append(name, other.name);
builder.append(info, other.info);
return builder.isEquals();
}
return false;
}
#Override
public int hashCode() {
HashCodeBuilder builder = new HashCodeBuilder();
builder.append(name);
builder.append(info);
return builder.toHashCode();
}
EDIT2:
It could also be appropriate if two EventInfo instances are considered the same, if they have the same name, for example if the name is some unique identifier (I know it's a bit far fetched with your specific object, but I'm generalising here...)

Related

How to implement a compareTo() method when consistent with Equal and hashcode

I have a class Product, which three variables:
class Product implements Comparable<Product>{
private Type type; // Type is an enum
Set<Attribute> attributes; // Attribute is a regular class
ProductName name; // ProductName is another enum
}
I used Eclipse to automatically generate the equal() and hashcode() methods:
#Override
public int hashCode() {
final int prime = 31;
int result = 1;
result = prime * result + ((attributes == null) ? 0 : attributes.hashCode());
result = prime * result + ((type == null) ? 0 : type.hashCode());
return result;
}
#Override
public boolean equals(Object obj) {
if (this == obj)
return true;
if (obj == null)
return false;
if (getClass() != obj.getClass())
return false;
Product other = (Product) obj;
if (attributes == null) {
if (other.attributes != null)
return false;
} else if (!attributes.equals(other.attributes))
return false;
if (type != other.type)
return false;
return true;
}
Now in my application I need to sort a Set of Product, so I need to implement the Comparable interface and compareTo method:
#Override
public int compareTo(Product other){
int diff = type.hashCode() - other.getType().hashCode();
if (diff > 0) {
return 1;
} else if (diff < 0) {
return -1;
}
diff = attributes.hashCode() - other.getAttributes().hashCode();
if (diff > 0) {
return 1;
} else if (diff < 0) {
return -1;
}
return 0;
}
Does this implementation make sense? What about if I just want to sort the product based on the String values of "type" and "attributes" values. So how to implement this?
Edit:
The reason I want to sort a Set of is because I have Junit test which asserts on the string values of a HashSet. My goal is to maintain the same order of output as I sort the set. otherwise, even if the Set's values are the same, the assertion will fail due to random output of a set.
Edit2:
Through the discussion, it's clear that to assert the equality of String values of a HashSet isn't good in unit tests. For my situation I currently write a sort() function to sort the HashSet String values in natural ordering, so it can consistently output the same String value for my unit tests and that suffice for now. Thanks all.
Looks like from all the comments in here you dont need to use Comparator at all. Because:
1) You are using HashSet that does not work with Comparator. It is not ordered.
2) You just need to make sure that two HashSets containing Products are equal. It means they are same size and contain the same set of Products.
Since you already added hashCode and equals methods to Product all you need to do is call equals method on those HashSets.
HashSet<Product> set1 = ...
HashSet<Product> set2 = ...
assertTrue( set1.equals(set2) );
This implementation does not seem to be consistent. You have no control over how the hash codes look like. If you have obj1 < obj2 according to compareTo in the first try, the next time you start your JVM it could be the other way around obj1 > obj2.
The only thing that you really know is that if diff == 0 then the objects are considered to be equal. However you can also just use the equals method for that check.
It is now up to you how you define when obj1 < obj2 or obj1 > obj2. Just make sure that it is consistent.
By the way, you know that the current implementation does not include ProductName name in the equals check? Dont know if that is intended thus the remark.
The question is, what do you know about that attributes? Maybe they implement Comparable (for example if they are Numbers), then you can order according to their compareTo method. If you totally know nothing about the objects, it will be hard to build up a consistent ordering.
If you just want them to be ordered consistently but the ordering itself does not play any role, you could just give them ids at creation time and sort by them. At this point you could indeed use the hashcodes if it does not matter that it can change between JVM calls, but only then.

Why am I getting duplicate keys in Java HashMap? [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
Java 1.7 Override of hashCode() not behaving as I would expect
(2 answers)
Closed 6 years ago.
I seem to be getting duplicate keys in the standard Java HashMap. By "duplicate", I mean the keys are equal by their equals() method. Here is the problematic code:
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.HashMap;
public class User {
private String userId;
public User(String userId) {
this.userId = userId;
}
public boolean equals(User other) {
return userId.equals(other.getUserId());
}
public int hashCode() {
return userId.hashCode();
}
public String toString() {
return userId;
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
User arvo1 = new User("Arvo-Part");
User arvo2 = new User("Arvo-Part");
Map<User,Integer> map = new HashMap<User,Integer>();
map.put(arvo1,1);
map.put(arvo2,2);
System.out.println("arvo1.equals(arvo2): " + arvo1.equals(arvo2));
System.out.println("map: " + map.toString());
System.out.println("arvo1 hash: " + arvo1.hashCode());
System.out.println("arvo2 hash: " + arvo2.hashCode());
System.out.println("map.get(arvo1): " + map.get(arvo1));
System.out.println("map.get(arvo2): " + map.get(arvo2));
System.out.println("map.get(arvo2): " + map.get(arvo2));
System.out.println("map.get(arvo1): " + map.get(arvo1));
}
}
And here is the resulting output:
arvo1.equals(arvo2): true
map: {Arvo-Part=1, Arvo-Part=2}
arvo1 hash: 164585782
arvo2 hash: 164585782
map.get(arvo1): 1
map.get(arvo2): 2
map.get(arvo2): 2
map.get(arvo1): 1
As you can see, the equals() method on the two User objects is returning true and their hash codes are the same, yet they each form a distinct key in map. Furthermore, map continues to distinguish between the two User keys in the last four get() calls.
This directly contradicts the documentation:
More formally, if this map contains a mapping from a key k to a value v such that (key==null ? k==null : key.equals(k)), then this method returns v; otherwise it returns null. (There can be at most one such mapping.)
Is this a bug? Am I missing something here? I'm running Java version 1.8.0_92, which I installed via Homebrew.
EDIT: This question has been marked as a duplicate of this other question, but I'll leave this question as is because it identifies a seeming inconsistency with equals(), whereas the other question assumes the error lies with hashCode(). Hopefully the presence of this question will make this issue more easily searchable.
The issue lies in your equals() method. The signature of Object.equals() is equals(OBJECT), but in your case it is equals(USER), so these are two completely different methods and the hashmap is calling the one with Object parameter. You can verify that by putting an #Override annotation over your equals - it will generate a compiler error.
The equals method should be:
#Override
public boolean equals(Object other) {
if(other instanceof User){
User user = (User) other;
return userId.equals(user.userId);
}
return false;
}
As a best practice you should always put #Override on the methods you override - it can save you a lot of trouble.
Your equals method does not override equals, and the types in the Map are erased at runtime, so the actual equals method called is equals(Object). Your equals should look more like this:
#Override
public boolean equals(Object other) {
if (!(other instanceof User))
return false;
User u = (User)other;
return userId.equals(u.userId);
}
OK, so first of all, the code doesn't compile. Missing this method:
other.getUserId()
But aside from that, you'll need to #Override equals method, IDE like Eclipse can also help generating equals and hashCode btw.
#Override
public boolean equals(Object obj)
{
if(this == obj)
return true;
if(obj == null)
return false;
if(getClass() != obj.getClass())
return false;
User other = (User) obj;
if(userId == null)
{
if(other.userId != null)
return false;
}
else if(!userId.equals(other.userId))
return false;
return true;
}
Like others answered you had a problem with the equals method signature. According to Java equals best practice you should implement equals like the following :
#Override
public boolean equals(Object o) {
if (this == o) return true;
if (o == null || getClass() != o.getClass()) return false;
User user = (User) o;
return userId.equals(user.userId);
}
Same thing applies for the hashCode() method. see Overriding equals() and hashCode() method in Java
The Second Problem
you don't have duplicates anymore now, but you have a new problem, your HashMap contains only one element:
map: {Arvo-Part=2}
This is because both User objects are referencing the same String(JVM String Interning), and from the HashMap perspective your two objects are the same, since both objects are equivalent in hashcode and equals methods. so when you add your second object to the HashMap you override your first one.
to avoid this problem, make sure you use a unique ID for each User
A simple demonstration on your users :

Java integer pair in set [duplicate]

The following code is not giving me the result I'm expecting:
public static void main (String[] args) {
Set<Pair> objPair = new LinkedHashSet<Pair>();
objPair.add(new Pair(1, 0));
System.out.println("Does the pair (1, 0) exists already? "+objPair.contains(new Pair(1, 0)));
}
private static class Pair {
private int source;
private int target;
public Pair(int source, int target) {
this.source = source;
this.target = target;
}
}
The result will be:
Does the pair (1, 0) exists already? false
I can't understand why it's not working.
Or maybe I'm using the "contains" method wrong (or for the wrong reasons).
There is also another issue,
if I add the same value twice, it will be accepted, even being a set
objPair.add(new Pair(1, 0));
objPair.add(new Pair(1, 0));
It won't accept/recognize the class Pair I've created?
Thanks in Advance.
You need to override your hashCode and equals methods in your Pair class. LinkedHashSet (and other Java objects that use hash codes) will use them to locate and find your Pair objects.
Without your own hashCode() implementation, Java considers two Pair objects equal only if they are the exact same object and new, by definition, always creates a 'new' object. In your case, you want Pair objects to be consider equal if they have the same values for source and target -- to do this, you need to tell Java how it should test Pair objects for equality. (and to make hash maps work the way you expect, you also need to generate a hash code that is consistent with equals -- loosely speaking, that means equal objects must generate the same hashCode, and unequal objects should generate different hash codes.
Most IDEs will generate decent hashcode() and equals() methods for you. Mine generated this:
#Override
public int hashCode() {
int hash = 3;
hash = 47 * hash + this.source;
hash = 47 * hash + this.target;
return hash;
}
#Override
public boolean equals(Object obj) {
if (obj == null) {
return false;
}
if (getClass() != obj.getClass()) {
return false;
}
final Pair other = (Pair) obj;
if (this.source != other.source) {
return false;
}
if (this.target != other.target) {
return false;
}
return true;
}

Correct way to implement Map<MyObject,ArrayList<MyObject>>

I was asked this in interview. using Google Guava or MultiMap is not an option.
I have a class
public class Alpha
{
String company;
int local;
String title;
}
I have many instances of this class (in order of millions). I need to process them and at the end find the unique ones and their duplicates.
e.g.
instance --> instance1, instance5, instance7 (instance1 has instance5 and instance7 as duplicates)
instance2 --> instance2 (no duplicates for instance 2)
My code works fine
declare datastructure
HashMap<Alpha,ArrayList<Alpha>> hashmap = new HashMap<Alpha,ArrayList<Alpha>>();
Add instances
for (Alpha x : arr)
{
ArrayList<Alpha> list = hashmap.get(x); ///<<<<---- doubt about this. comment#1
if (list == null)
{
list = new ArrayList<Alpha>();
hashmap.put(x, list);
}
list.add(x);
}
Print instances and their duplicates.
for (Alpha x : hashmap.keySet())
{
ArrayList<Alpha> list = hashmap.get(x); //<<< doubt about this. comment#2
System.out.println(x + "<---->");
for(Alpha y : list)
{
System.out.print(y);
}
System.out.println();
}
Question: My code works, but why? when I do hashmap.get(x); (comment#1 in code). it is possible that two different instances might have same hashcode. In that case, I will add 2 different objects to the same List.
When I retrieve, I should get a List which has 2 different instances. (comment#2) and when I iterate over the list, I should see at least one instance which is not duplicate of the key but still exists in the list. I don't. Why?. I tried returning constant value from my hashCode function, it works fine.
If you want to see my implementation of equals and hashCode,let me know.
Bonus question: Any way to optimize it?
Edit:
#Override
public boolean equals(Object obj) {
if (obj==null || obj.getClass()!=this.getClass())
return false;
if (obj==this)
return true;
Alpha guest = (Alpha)obj;
return guest.getLocal()==this.getLocal()
&& guest.getCompany() == this.getCompany()
&& guest.getTitle() == this.getTitle();
}
#Override
public int hashCode() {
final int prime = 31;
int result = 1;
result = prime * result + (title==null?0:title.hashCode());
result = prime * result + local;
result = prime * result + (company==null?0:company.hashCode());
return result;
}
it is possible that two different instances might have same hashcode
Yes, but hashCode method is used to identify the index to store the element. Two or more keys could have the same hashCode but that's why they are also evaluated using equals.
From Map#containsKey javadoc:
Returns true if this map contains a mapping for the specified key. More formally, returns true if and only if this map contains a mapping for a key k such that (key==null ? k==null : key.equals(k)). (There can be at most one such mapping.)
Some enhancements to your current code:
Code oriented to interfaces. Use Map and instantiate it by HashMap. Similar to List and ArrayList.
Compare Strings and Objects in general using equals method. == compares references, equals compares the data stored in the Object depending the implementation of this method. So, change the code in Alpha#equals:
public boolean equals(Object obj) {
if (obj==null || obj.getClass()!=this.getClass())
return false;
if (obj==this)
return true;
Alpha guest = (Alpha)obj;
return guest.getLocal().equals(this.getLocal())
&& guest.getCompany().equals(this.getCompany())
&& guest.getTitle().equals(this.getTitle());
}
When navigating through all the elements of a map in pairs, use Map#entrySet instead, you can save the time used by Map#get (since it is supposed to be O(1) you won't save that much but it is better):
for (Map.Entry<Alpha, List<Alpha>> entry : hashmap.keySet()) {
List<Alpha> list = entry.getValuee();
System.out.println(entry.getKey() + "<---->");
for(Alpha y : list) {
System.out.print(y);
}
System.out.println();
}
Use equals along with hashCode to solve the collision state.
Steps:
First compare on the basis of title in hashCode()
If the title is same then look into equals() based on company name to resolve the collision state.
Sample code
class Alpha {
String company;
int local;
String title;
public Alpha(String company, int local, String title) {
this.company = company;
this.local = local;
this.title = title;
}
#Override
public int hashCode() {
return title.hashCode();
}
#Override
public boolean equals(Object obj) {
if (obj instanceof Alpha) {
return this.company.equals(((Alpha) obj).company);
}
return false;
}
}
...
Map<Alpha, ArrayList<Alpha>> hashmap = new HashMap<Alpha, ArrayList<Alpha>>();
hashmap.put(new Alpha("a", 1, "t1"), new ArrayList<Alpha>());
hashmap.put(new Alpha("b", 2, "t1"), new ArrayList<Alpha>());
hashmap.put(new Alpha("a", 3, "t1"), new ArrayList<Alpha>());
System.out.println("Size : "+hashmap.size());
Output
Size : 2

Java HashMap.containsKey() doesn't call equals()

I have a hashmap:
Map<LotWaferBean, File> hm = new HashMap<LotWaferBean, File>();
LotWaferBean lw = new LotWaferBean();
... //populate lw
if (!hm.containsKey((LotWaferBean) lw)) {
hm.put(lw, triggerFiles[l]);
}
The code for LotWaferBean:
#Override
public boolean equals(Object o) {
if (!(o instanceof LotWaferBean)) {
return false;
}
if (((LotWaferBean) o).getLotId().equals(lotId)
&& ((LotWaferBean) o).getWaferNo() == waferNo) {
return true;
}
return false;
}
In my IDE I put breakpoints in equals() but it is never executed. Why?
Try putting a breakpoint in hashCode().
If the hashCode() of two objects in a map return the same number, then equals will be called to determine if they're really equal.
JVM checks the hashcode bucket of that object's hashcode, if there are more objects with the same hashcode, then only, the equals() method will be executed. And, the developer should follow correct contract between the hashCode() and equals() methods.
Only if 2 hashCodes equal, equals() will be called during loop keys.
Only if 2 hashCodes equal, equals() will be called during loop keys.
this is the correct answer... or almost. Precisely, if 2 hash codes collide (being the same ensures they are bound to collide under proper hashmap impl), only then equality check is performed.
BTW, your equal method is most likely incorrect. In case LotWaferBean is overridden, your equals method will accept the subclass instance, but will your subclass also do?
It better should read:
#Override
public boolean equals(Object o) {
if (o == null || o.getClass() != getClass()) { // << this is important
return false;
}
final LotWaferBean other = (LotWaferBean)o;
return other.getLotId().equals(lotId)
&& other.getWaferNo() == waferNo);
}
As Abimaran Kugathasan noted, the HashMap implementation uses hash-buckets to efficiently look up keys, and only uses equals() to compare the keys in the matching hash-bucket against the given key. It's worth noting that keys are assigned to hash-buckets when they are added to a HashMap. If you alter keys in a HashMap after adding them, in a way that would change their hash code, then they won't be in the proper hash-bucket; and trying to use a matching key to access the map will find the proper hash-bucket, but it won't contain the altered key.
class aMutableType {
private int value;
public aMutableType(int originalValue) {
this.value = originalValue;
}
public int getValue() {
return this.value;
}
public void setValue(int newValue) {
this.value = newValue;
}
#Override
public boolean equals(Object o) {
// ... all the normal tests ...
return this.value == ((aMutableType) o).value;
}
#Override
public int hashCode() {
return Integer.hashCode(this.value);
}
}
...
Map<aMutableType, Integer> aMap = new HashMap<>();
aMap.put(new aMutableType(5), 3); // puts key in bucket for hash(5)
for (aMutableType key : new HashSet<>(aMap.keySet()))
key.setValue(key.getValue()+1); // key 5 => 6
if (aMap.containsKey(new aMutableType(6))
doSomething(); // won't get here, even though
// there's a key == 6 in the Map,
// because that key is in the hash-bucket for 5
This can result in some pretty odd-looking behavior. You can set a breakpoint just before theMap.containsKey(theKey), and see that the value of theKey matches a key in theMap, and yet the key's equals() won't be called, and containsKey() will return false.
As noted here https://stackoverflow.com/a/21601013 , there's actually a warning the JavaDoc for Map regarding the use of mutable types for keys. Non-hash Map types won't have this particular problem, but could have other problems when keys are altered in-place.

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