What is the importance of hashCode() and equals() methods? How they are used in Java

The java.lang.Object has two methods defined in it. They are – public boolean equals(Object obj) public int hashCode(). These two methods are used heavily when objects are stored in collections. There is a contract between these two methods which should be kept in mind while overriding any of these methods. The Java API documentation describes it in detail.

The hashCode() method returns a hash code value for the object. This method is supported for the benefit of hashtables such as those provided by java.util.Hashtable or java.util.HashMap. The general contract of hashCode is: Whenever it is invoked on the same object more than once during an execution of a Java application, the hashCode method must consistently return the same integer, provided no information used in equals comparisons on the object is modified. This integer need not remain consistent from one execution of an application to another execution of the same application. If two objects are equal according to the equals(Object) method, then calling the hashCode method on each of the two objects must produce the same integer result. It is not required that if two objects are unequal according to the equals(java.lang.Object) method, then calling the hashCode method on each of the two objects must produce distinct integer results.

However, the programmer should be aware that producing distinct integer results for unequal objects may improve the performance of hashtables. As much as is reasonably practical, the hashCode method defined by class Object does return distinct integers for distinct objects.

The equals(Object obj) method indicates whether some other object is “equal to” this one. The equals method implements an equivalence relation on non-null object references: It is reflexive: for any non-null reference value x, x.equals(x) should return true. It is symmetric: for any non-null reference values x and y, x.equals(y) should return true if and only if y.equals(x) returns true. It is transitive: for any non-null reference values x, y, and z, if x.equals(y) returns true and y.equals(z) returns true, then x.equals(z) should return true. It is consistent: for any non-null reference values x and y, multiple invocations of x.equals(y) consistently return true or consistently return false, provided no information used in equals comparisons on the objects is modified. For any non-null reference value x, x.equals(null) should return false.

The equals method for class Object implements the most discriminating possible equivalence relation on objects; that is, for any non-null reference values x and y, this method returns true if and only if x and y refer to the same object (x == y has the value true). Note that it is generally necessary to override the hashCode method whenever this method is overridden, so as to maintain the general contract for the hashCode method, which states that equal objects must have equal hash codes.

A practical Example of hashcode() & equals(): This can be applied to classes that need to be stored in Set collections. Sets use equals() to enforce non-duplicates, and HashSet uses hashCode() as a first-cut test for equality. Technically hashCode() isn’t necessary then since equals() will always be used in the end, but providing a meaningful hashCode() will improve performance for very large sets or objects that take a long time to compare using equals().

What is difference between Iterator and Enumeration

Both Iterator and Enumeration are used to traverse Collection objects, in a sequential fashion. Enumeration can be applied to Vector and HashTable. Iterator can be used with most of the Collection objects. The main difference between the two is that Iterator is fail-safe. i.e, If you are using an iterator to go through a collection you can be sure of no concurrent modifications in the underlying collection which may happen in multi-threaded environments.

Difference between Vector and ArrayList? What is the Vector class

Vector & ArrayList both classes are implemented using dynamically resizable arrays, providing fast random access and fast traversal. ArrayList and Vector class both implement the List interface. Both the classes are member of Java collection framework, therefore from an API perspective, these two classes are very similar. However, there are still some major differences between the two. Below are some key differences

Vector is a legacy class which has been retrofitted to implement the List interface since Java 2 platform v1.2

Vector is synchronized whereas ArrayList is not. Even though Vector class is synchronized, still when you want programs to run in multithreading There are multiple aspects to this decision:

The basic difference between a Hashtable and an HashMap is that, Hashtable is synchronized while HashMap is not. Thus whenever there is a possibility of multiple threads accessing the same instance, one should use Hashtable. While if not multiple threads are going to access the same instance then use HashMap. Non synchronized data structure will give better performance than the synchronized one.
If there is a possibility in future that – there can be a scenario when you may require to retain the order of objects in the Collection with key-value pair then HashMap can be a good choice. As one of HashMap’s subclasses is LinkedHashMap, so in the event that you’d want predictable iteration order (which is insertion order by default), you can easily swap out the HashMap for a LinkedHashMap. This wouldn’t be as easy if you were using Hashtable. Also if you have multiple thread accessing you HashMap then Collections.synchronizedMap() method can be leveraged. Overall HashMap gives you more flexibility in termsenvironment using ArrayList with Collections.synchronizedList() is recommended over Vector.
ArrayList has no default size while vector has a default size of 10.
The Enumerations returned by Vector’s elements method are not fail-fast. Whereas ArraayList does not have any method returning Enumerations.

Difference between HashMap and HashTable? Compare Hashtable vs HashMap

Both Hashtable & HashMap provide key-value access to data. The Hashtable is one of the original collection classes in Java (also called as legacy classes). HashMap is part of the new Collections Framework, added with Java 2, v1.2. There are several differences between HashMap and Hashtable in Java as listed below

The HashMap class is roughly equivalent to Hashtable, except that it is unsynchronized and permits nulls. (HashMap allows null values as key and value whereas Hashtable doesn’t allow nulls).
HashMap does not guarantee that the order of the map will remain constant over time. But one of HashMap’s subclasses is LinkedHashMap, so in the event that you’d want predictable iteration order (which is insertion order by default), you can easily swap out the HashMap for a LinkedHashMap. This wouldn’t be as easy if you were using Hashtable.
HashMap is non synchronized whereas Hashtable is synchronized.
Iterator in the HashMap is fail-fast while the enumerator for the Hashtable isn’t. So this could be a design consideration.

Explain about Java Collections API

Java Collections Framework provides a set of interfaces and classes that support operations on a collections of objects.

What is performance of various Java collection implementations/algorithms? What is Big ‘O’ notation for each of them

Each java collection implementation class have different performance for different methods, which makes them suitable for different programming needs.

What is the difference between Sorting performance of Arrays.sort() vs Collections.sort() ? Which one is faster? Which one to use and when

Many developers are concerned about the performance difference between java.util.Array.sort() java.util.Collections.sort() methods. Both methods have same algorithm the only difference is type of input to them. Collections.sort() has a input as List so it does a translation of List to array and vice versa which is an additional step while sorting. So this should be used when you are trying to sort a list. Arrays.sort is for arrays so the sorting is done directly on the array. So clearly it should be used when you have a array available with you and you want to sort it.

What is TreeSet

TreeSet – It is the implementation of SortedSet interface.This implementation provides guaranteed log(n) time cost for the basic operations (add, remove and contains). The class is not synchronized.

What is the Difference between Enumeration and Iterator interface

Enumeration and Iterator are the interface available in java.util package. The functionality of Enumeration interface is duplicated by the Iterator interface. New implementations should consider using Iterator in preference to Enumeration. Iterators differ from enumerations in following ways:

Enumeration contains 2 methods namely hasMoreElements() & nextElement() whereas Iterator contains three methods namely hasNext(), next(),remove().
Iterator adds an optional remove operation, and has shorter method names. Using remove() we can delete the objects but Enumeration interface does not support this feature.
Enumeration interface is used by legacy classes. Vector.elements() & Hashtable.elements() method returns Enumeration. Iterator is returned by all Java Collections Framework classes. java.util.Collection.iterator() method returns an instance of Iterator.

What is a vector in Java

Vector implements a dynamic array. It is similar to ArrayList, but with two differences: Vector is synchronized, and it contains many legacy methods that are not part of the collections framework.