/**
* Returns a hash code for this
string. The hash code for a
* <code>String</code> object is computed as
* <blockquote><pre>
* s[0]*31^(n-1) + s[1]*31^(n-2) + ... + s[n-1] // Line 1
* </pre></blockquote>
* using <code>int</code> arithmetic, where <code>s[i]</code> is the
* <i>i</i>th character of the string, <code>n</code> is the length of
* the string, and <code>^</code> indicates exponentiation.
* (The hash value of the empty string is zero.)
*
* @return a hash code value for this object.
*/
public int hashCode() {
int h = hash;
if (h == 0 && count > 0) {
int off = offset;
char val[] = value;
int len = count;
for (int i = 0; i < len; i++) {
h = 31*h + val[off++]; // Line: 2
}
hash = h;
}
return h;
}
From Line 1 and Line 2 of the above we can find that 31 is used in finding the hashCode() of a string.
But why is it only 31 ???