Although I’ll use the new java.util.Objects class instead for JDK 7 projects, Guava’s com.google.common.base.Objects class provides a nice alternative for working in versions of Java prior to ...

The hashCode method is used to generate an integer value that represents the hash code of an object. It should be consistent with the equals method, meaning that if two objects are equal, they ...

As to maintain the general contract for the hashCode method, which states that equal objects must have equal hash codes. If two objects have the same hashcode then they are NOT necessarily equal.