c# How to find if two objects are equal
Your current equality method is broken - there are more values than possible hash codes. It's entirely reasonable (and expected) that you will occasionally have values which are unequal but give the same hash. Equals should check the actual values:
public override bool Equals(object obj)
{
Test test = obj as Test;
if (obj == null)
{
return false;
}
return Value == test.Value &&
String1 == test.String1 &&
String2 == test.String2;
}
A few things to note:
Your way of generating the hashcode will give the same value for any fixed
Value
ifString1
andString2
are the same; it will also blow up ifString1
orString2
is null. This is an unfortunate aspect of using XOR for hashing. I prefer something like this:// Put this extension method in a utility class somewhere public static int SafeGetHashCode<T>(this T value) where T : class { return value == null ? 0 : value.GetHashCode(); } // and this in your actual class public override int GetHashCode() { int hash = 19; hash = hash * 31 + Value; hash = hash * 31 + String1.SafeGetHashCode(); hash = hash * 31 + String2.SafeGetHashCode(); return hash; }
Generally speaking, equality becomes tricky when inheritance gets involved. You may want to consider sealing your class.
You may also want to implement
IEquatable<Test>
Your Equals
is incorrect - that should define what it means for two things to be equal - and having the same hash-code does not mean equality (however; a different hash-code does mean non-equality). If "equality" means "both strings are pairwise equal", then test that.
Re a better hash; xor is notorious for this, since it is trivial to get 0 by xor a value with itself. A better approach may be something like:
int i = 0x65407627;
i = (i * -1521134295) + Value.GetHashCode();
i = (i * -1521134295) + (String1 == null ? 0 : String1.GetHashCode());
i = (i * -1521134295) + (String2 == null ? 0 : String2.GetHashCode());
return i;
simple
Object.Equals(obj1, obj2);