Hashing and overriding hashCode()
Hashing is an important concept in Java. It is used to efficiently store and retrieve data in various data structures, such as HashMaps and HashSets. It’s also a very interesting topic. You’ll get quite far without understanding what this does, but at some point, you may wonder about the horrible performance of your HashMap class. And understanding what is going on is not possible without understanding hashing. So, let’s discuss the basic concepts of hashing, the role of the hashCode() method in collections, and best practices for overriding the hashCode() method in your custom classes.
Understanding basic hashing concepts
Hashing is a method that transforms data into a piece of code called a hash code. Think of it like taking a huge pile of books and assigning each book a unique number. A good hash function should give different books different numbers and spread them evenly. This makes it easy to find and organize the books...
