how hasing works in java

[Rauhl Roy]

May i know how hashing works in java?

[Wouter Oet]

Do you mean hashing as in: MD5/SHA, as in hashCode(), or as in HashMap/Set()?

[Campbell Ritchie]

You would have to provide your own algorithms, and you should find details of SHA etc in any algorithms book. You can find a recommended hashCode method in Joshua Bloch's Effective Java™ or Bruce Eckel's Thinking in Java™ (TiJ); Eckel acknowledges Bloch there. You can find the 3rd edition of TiJ or a sample chapter of Bloch (old edition: try here) free of charge if you search the net. There are subtle differences in Bloch's recommendations in the 2nd edition.

[Stephan van Hulst]

And for hash tables you can usually find an explanation in any computer algorithms and data-types book.

[Rauhl Roy]

Campbell Ritchie wrote:You would have to provide your own algorithms, and you should find details of SHA etc in any algorithms book. You can find a recommended hashCode method in Joshua Bloch's Effective Java™ or Bruce Eckel's Thinking in Java™ (TiJ); Eckel acknowledges Bloch there. You can find the 3rd edition of TiJ or a sample chapter of Bloch (old edition: try here) free of charge if you search the net. There are subtle differences in Bloch's recommendations in the 2nd edition.

My understanding is that from the effective java link mentioned above that, hashing checks if equals() and hashcode() contract is met or not. if met hashing is done otherwise hashing fails?

[Campbell Ritchie]

I don't remember that; are you sure you have read the link correctly?

As far as I remember, it explains how you ensure equals() fulfils its general contract, and how to write a hashCode method which also maintains that general contract, but hashing cannot fail for the algorithms shown there.

[Winston Gutkowski]

Rauhl Roy wrote:My understanding is that from the effective java link mentioned above that, hashing checks if equals() and hashcode() contract is met or not. if met hashing is done otherwise hashing fails?

I don't think so; the only things I've ever read are:
1. If you implement equals(), you should also implement hashCode().
2. If object A is equal() to object B then they must return the same hashcode.
(That is NOT the same as saying that two objects, A and B, that return the same hashcode must be equal() - in fact, such a guarantee is pretty well impossible).
3. It generally helps for hashed collections if, as far as possible, objects that are NOT equal() produce different hashcodes.

Winston

BTW - You may be interested to know that HashSet and HashMap actually "re-hash" your hash to help prevent bucket collisions, so you don't even need to worry too much about "hash spread"; just make sure that they're likely to be distinct.