HashMap和HashSet等集合使用对象的hashcode值来确定该对象应该如何存储在集合中，然后再次使用hashcode来定位该对象 在它的收藏中。

哈希检索是一个两步过程:

找到正确的桶(使用hashCode()) 在桶中搜索正确的元素(使用equals())

下面是一个关于为什么我们应该重写equals()和hashcode()的小例子。

考虑一个Employee类，它有两个字段:年龄和名字。

public class Employee {

    String name;
    int age;

    public Employee(String name, int age) {
        this.name = name;
        this.age = age;
    }

    public String getName() {
        return name;
    }

    public void setName(String name) {
        this.name = name;
    }

    public int getAge() {
        return age;
    }

    public void setAge(int age) {
        this.age = age;
    }

    @Override
    public boolean equals(Object obj) {
        if (obj == this)
            return true;
        if (!(obj instanceof Employee))
            return false;
        Employee employee = (Employee) obj;
        return employee.getAge() == this.getAge()
                && employee.getName() == this.getName();
    }

    // commented    
    /*  @Override
        public int hashCode() {
            int result=17;
            result=31*result+age;
            result=31*result+(name!=null ? name.hashCode():0);
            return result;
        }
     */
}

现在创建一个类，将Employee对象插入到HashSet中并测试该对象是否存在。

public class ClientTest {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Employee employee = new Employee("rajeev", 24);
        Employee employee1 = new Employee("rajeev", 25);
        Employee employee2 = new Employee("rajeev", 24);

        HashSet<Employee> employees = new HashSet<Employee>();
        employees.add(employee);
        System.out.println(employees.contains(employee2));
        System.out.println("employee.hashCode():  " + employee.hashCode()
        + "  employee2.hashCode():" + employee2.hashCode());
    }
}

它将打印以下内容:

false
employee.hashCode():  321755204  employee2.hashCode():375890482

现在uncomment hashcode()方法，执行相同的方法，输出将是:

true
employee.hashCode():  -938387308  employee2.hashCode():-938387308

Now can you see why if two objects are considered equal, their hashcodes must also be equal? Otherwise, you'd never be able to find the object since the default hashcode method in class Object virtually always comes up with a unique number for each object, even if the equals() method is overridden in such a way that two or more objects are considered equal. It doesn't matter how equal the objects are if their hashcodes don't reflect that. So one more time: If two objects are equal, their hashcodes must be equal as well.

The methods equals and hashcode are defined in the object class. By default if the equals method returns true, then the system will go further and check the value of the hash code. If the hash code of the 2 objects is also same only then the objects will be considered as same. So if you override only equals method, then even though the overridden equals method indicates 2 objects to be equal , the system defined hashcode may not indicate that the 2 objects are equal. So we need to override hash code as well.

因为如果你不重写它们，你将使用Object中的默认实现。

考虑到实例相等和hascode值通常需要了解组成对象的内容，它们通常需要在类中重新定义，以具有任何有形的意义。

在这个回答中没有提到测试equals/hashcode契约。

我发现EqualsVerifier库非常有用和全面。它也很容易使用。

另外，从头构建equals()和hashCode()方法涉及大量样板代码。Apache Commons Lang库提供了EqualsBuilder和HashCodeBuilder类。这些类极大地简化了复杂类的equals()和hashCode()方法的实现。

顺便说一句，值得考虑重写toString()方法以帮助调试。Apache Commons Lang库提供了ToStringBuilder类来帮助实现这一点。

常见错误如下例所示。

public class Car {

    private String color;

    public Car(String color) {
        this.color = color;
    }

    public boolean equals(Object obj) {
        if(obj==null) return false;
        if (!(obj instanceof Car))
            return false;   
        if (obj == this)
            return true;
        return this.color.equals(((Car) obj).color);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Car a1 = new Car("green");
        Car a2 = new Car("red");

        //hashMap stores Car type and its quantity
        HashMap<Car, Integer> m = new HashMap<Car, Integer>();
        m.put(a1, 10);
        m.put(a2, 20);
        System.out.println(m.get(new Car("green")));
    }
}

绿色的车没有找到

2. hashCode()引起的问题

该问题是由未覆盖的hashCode()方法引起的。equals()和hashCode()之间的契约是:

如果两个对象相等，那么它们必须具有相同的哈希码。 如果两个对象具有相同的哈希码，则它们可能相等，也可能不相等。 公共int hashCode(){ 返回this.color.hashCode (); ｝

身份不是平等。

= operator ==测试标识符。 equals(Object obj)方法比较相等性测试(即我们需要通过重写方法来告诉相等)

为什么我需要重写Java中的equals和hashCode方法?

首先我们要理解等号法的用法。

为了识别两个对象之间的差异，我们需要重写equals方法。

例如:

Customer customer1=new Customer("peter");
Customer customer2=customer1;
customer1.equals(customer2); // returns true by JVM. i.e. both are refering same Object
------------------------------
Customer customer1=new Customer("peter");
Customer customer2=new Customer("peter");
customer1.equals(customer2); //return false by JVM i.e. we have two different peter customers.

------------------------------
Now I have overriden Customer class equals method as follows:
 @Override
    public boolean equals(Object obj) {
        if (this == obj)   // it checks references
            return true;
        if (obj == null) // checks null
            return false;
        if (getClass() != obj.getClass()) // both object are instances of same class or not
            return false;
        Customer other = (Customer) obj;
        if (name == null) {
            if (other.name != null)
                return false;
        } else if (!name.equals(other.name)) // it again using bulit in String object equals to identify the difference 
            return false;
        return true; 
    }
Customer customer1=new Customer("peter");
Customer customer2=new Customer("peter");
Insteady identify the Object equality by JVM, we can do it by overring equals method.
customer1.equals(customer2);  // returns true by our own logic

现在hashCode方法很容易理解了。

hashCode生成整数，以便将对象存储在HashMap、HashSet等数据结构中。

假设我们有如上所述的override equals Customer方法，

customer1.equals(customer2);  // returns true by our own logic

在处理数据结构时，我们将对象存储在桶中(桶是文件夹的花哨名称)。如果我们使用内置哈希技术，对于以上两个客户，它会生成两个不同的哈希码。所以我们把相同的对象存储在两个不同的地方。为了避免这类问题，我们也应该基于以下原则重写hashCode方法。

不相等的实例可能具有相同的hashcode。 相同的实例应该返回相同的hashcode。