Problem with ContainsKey(obj key) in HashMap

[Suhas Rao]

Hi ranchers,
well the issue is that i have got a class Emp{}
with some variables.
Now say i have 10 objects of this class and when 2 keys say EmpNo.&Deptno
is given i have to retrieve that objects properties.
Since i had to use two variables as keys
i thought of using HashMap where an object is used to map another object

i.e map.put(object Key,object value)
key(empno,deptno)
values=emp1,emp2 ....

but i had a problem while searching through the table.

Please help me out.
My code is

class Emp
{
int Empno;
int Deptno;
String Name="";
String Des="";

Emp() 
{
}

Emp(int no)//constructors
{
System.out.println("Inside Emp( no )");
Empno=no;
}

Emp(int no, int dno, String name, String des)
{
System.out.println("Inside Emp( no,dno,name,des )");
Empno=no;
Deptno=dno;
Name=name;
Des=des;
}

public String toString()//return type
{
System.out.println("Inside toString()");
return Empno+"\t"+Deptno+"\t"+Name+"\t"+Des+"\t";
}

}
 
public class Final
{
         //main class where emp is called
 
public static void main(String[] args)
                      {
int empno;
int deptno;
int flag;
String name="";
String des="";
HashMap map = new HashMap();

BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader  (new      InputStreamReader(System.in));
try
{   
 do
  {

                    System.out.println"EnterEmployee Number :");
    empno =Integer.parseInt(br.readLine());
    System.out.println("Enter Department Number :");
    deptno = Integer.parseInt(br.readLine());
     System.out.println("Enter Employee Name :");
     name = br.readLine();
    System.out.println("Enter Employee Designation :");
des = br.readLine();
Emp key = new Emp(empno);
Emp value = new Emp(empno,deptno,name,des);
map.put(key,value);//Maping to Table

System.out.println("Do you want to Exit (y/n)?");
flag=Integer.parseInt(br.readLine());
}while(flag == 1);
System.out.println("out ");
Set set = map.entrySet();
Iterator itr = set.iterator();
while(itr.hasNext())
{
Map.Entry  me = (Map.Entry)itr.next();
System.out.println(me.getKey().toString());
System.out.println(me.getValue().toString());
} 
System.out.println("Enter the Employee Id to be searched");
int id= br.read();
Object Emp1 = new Emp(id);
system.out.println("Hi");
                       if(map.containsKey(Emp1))
{

System.out.println("Inside");
System.out.println(map.get(Emp1)); 
}

}

catch(Exception e)
{
System.out.println(e);
}

}
}  

[Paul Sturrock]

but i had a problem while searching through the table

I could try to guess what this problem was. Far easier though would be if you told us - perhaps by listing an exception stacktrace or describing what went wrong?

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

For an object to serve as the key in a HashMap, it has to have correct hashCode() and equals() methods; the ones inherited from Object aren't good enough. Without these methods, two copies of a key with the same fields won't appear to be the same, so you won't be able to use the second copy to look up the object that was stored with the first copy. You haven't supplied these methods in Employee, and that explains the behavior you're seeing.

Implementing these methods can be tricky. Here's one of many references available to help you.

[Jean Chastain]

Having used this post as my starting point, I overloaded hashCode in my key class and containsKey still didn't work. After much thrashing, I realized that I had (in the C++ canonical style to which I am accustomed) defined my equals method to take an argument of myKeyObject instead of Object. Since I had written my equals method before I read these threads (thanks, Ernest and others for patiently answering the recurring questions about hashMaps), I kept looking at it and seeing it matching the signature in the examples, which of course, it didn't.

Just posting it here for future reference.