Java提出了一个规则

如果使用Object类的equals方法，两个对象相等，那么hashcode方法应该为这两个对象提供相同的值。

因此，如果在我们的类中重写equals()，我们也应该重写hashcode()方法来遵循此规则。 例如，equals()和hashcode()这两个方法都用于Hashtable中以键值对的形式存储值。如果我们覆盖其中一个而不是另一个，如果我们使用这样的对象作为键，哈希表可能不会像我们想要的那样工作。

你必须重写hashCode()在每个 重写equals()的类。失败 这样做会导致违反 总合同 Object.hashCode()，它将防止 你的类不能正常运行 结合所有基于哈希的 集合，包括HashMap， HashSet和Hashtable。 摘自Joshua Bloch的《Effective Java》

通过一致地定义equals()和hashCode()，可以提高类作为基于散列的集合中的键的可用性。正如hashCode的API文档所解释的那样:“支持此方法是为了受益于诸如java.util.Hashtable所提供的哈希表。”

关于如何有效地实现这些方法的问题，最好的答案是建议你阅读《Effective Java》的第3章。

它在使用值对象时很有用。以下摘自Portland Pattern Repository:

Examples of value objects are things like numbers, dates, monies and strings. Usually, they are small objects which are used quite widely. Their identity is based on their state rather than on their object identity. This way, you can have multiple copies of the same conceptual value object. So I can have multiple copies of an object that represents the date 16 Jan 1998. Any of these copies will be equal to each other. For a small object such as this, it is often easier to create new ones and move them around rather than rely on a single object to represent the date. A value object should always override .equals() in Java (or = in Smalltalk). (Remember to override .hashCode() as well.)

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 (); ｝

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.

public class Employee {

    private int empId;
    private String empName;

    public Employee(int empId, String empName) {
        super();
        this.empId = empId;
        this.empName = empName;
    }

    public int getEmpId() {
        return empId;
    }

    public void setEmpId(int empId) {
        this.empId = empId;
    }

    public String getEmpName() {
        return empName;
    }

    public void setEmpName(String empName) {
        this.empName = empName;
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return "Employee [empId=" + empId + ", empName=" + empName + "]";
    }

    @Override
    public int hashCode() {
        return empId + empName.hashCode();
    }

    @Override
    public boolean equals(Object obj) {

        if (this == obj) {
            return true;
        }
        if (!(this instanceof Employee)) {
            return false;
        }
        Employee emp = (Employee) obj;
        return this.getEmpId() == emp.getEmpId() && this.getEmpName().equals(emp.getEmpName());
    }

}

测试类

public class Test {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Employee emp1 = new Employee(101,"Manash");
        Employee emp2 = new Employee(101,"Manash");
        Employee emp3 = new Employee(103,"Ranjan");
        System.out.println(emp1.hashCode());
        System.out.println(emp2.hashCode());
        System.out.println(emp1.equals(emp2));
        System.out.println(emp1.equals(emp3));
    }

}

在对象类中，equals(Object obj)用于比较地址比较，这就是为什么在Test类中，如果你比较两个对象，则equals method给出false，但当我们重写hashcode()时，它可以比较内容并给出正确的结果。