Why Override hashCode() When Overriding equals() in Java
The Default Behavior of equals()
In java.lang.Object, the base implementation simply checks reference identity:
public boolean equals(Object obj) {
return (this == obj);
}
Without overriding, two distinct instances are never equal, even if they hold identical field values.
A typical custom implementation compares logical attributes:
class ...
Posted on Tue, 07 Jul 2026 17:32:15 +0000 by erikhillis