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.

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.)

如果重写equals()而不是hashcode()，则不会发现任何问题，除非您或其他人在HashSet等散列集合中使用该类类型。 在我之前的人已经清楚地解释了很多次文献理论，我只是在这里提供一个非常简单的例子。

考虑一个类，它的equals()需要表示自定义的东西:-

    public class Rishav {

        private String rshv;

        public Rishav(String rshv) {
            this.rshv = rshv;
        }

        /**
        * @return the rshv
        */
        public String getRshv() {
            return rshv;
        }

        /**
        * @param rshv the rshv to set
        */
        public void setRshv(String rshv) {
            this.rshv = rshv;
        }

        @Override
        public boolean equals(Object obj) {
            if (obj instanceof Rishav) {
                obj = (Rishav) obj;
                if (this.rshv.equals(((Rishav) obj).getRshv())) {
                    return true;
                } else {
                    return false;
                }
            } else {
                return false;
            }
        }

        @Override
        public int hashCode() {
            return rshv.hashCode();
        }

    }

现在考虑这个主类:-

    import java.util.HashSet;
    import java.util.Set;

    public class TestRishav {

        public static void main(String[] args) {
            Rishav rA = new Rishav("rishav");
            Rishav rB = new Rishav("rishav");
            System.out.println(rA.equals(rB));
            System.out.println("-----------------------------------");

            Set<Rishav> hashed = new HashSet<>();
            hashed.add(rA);
            System.out.println(hashed.contains(rB));
            System.out.println("-----------------------------------");

            hashed.add(rB);
            System.out.println(hashed.size());
        }

    }

这将产生以下输出:-

    true
    -----------------------------------
    true
    -----------------------------------
    1

我对结果很满意。但是如果我没有覆盖hashCode()，它将导致噩梦，因为具有相同成员内容的Rishav对象将不再被视为唯一的hashCode将是不同的，因为由默认行为生成，这里将是输出:-

    true
    -----------------------------------
    false
    -----------------------------------
    2

假设你有一个类(A)，它聚合了另外两个类(B) (C)，你需要在哈希表中存储类(A)的实例。默认实现只允许区分实例，但不允许通过(B)和(C)。因此A的两个实例可以相等，但默认不允许您以正确的方式比较它们。

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.

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。