Question

Consider the following code:

struct Vec2 : IEquatable<Vec2>
{
    double X,Y;

    public bool Equals(Vec2 other)
    {
        return X.Equals(other.X) && Y.Equals(other.Y);
    }

    public override bool Equals(object obj)
    {
        if (obj is Vec2)
        {
            return Equals((Vec2)obj);
        }
        return false;
    }

    // this will return the same value when X, Y are swapped
    public override int GetHashCode()
    {
        return X.GetHashCode() ^ Y.GetHashCode();
    }

}

Beyond the conversation of comparing doubles for equality (this is just demo code), what I am concerned with is that there is a hash clash when X, Y values are swapped. For example:

Vec2 A = new Vec2() { X=1, Y=5 };
Vec2 B = new Vec2() { X=5, Y=1 };

bool test1 = A.Equals(B);  // returns false;
bool test2 = A.GetHashCode() == B.GetHashCode() // returns true !!!!!

which should wreck havoc in a dictionary collection. So the question is how to property form the GetHashCode() function for 2,3 or even 4 floating point values such that the results are not symmetric and the hashes don’t clash.

Edit 1:

Point implements the inappropriate x ^ y solution, and PointF wraps ValueType.GetHashCode().

Rectangle has a very peculiar (((X ^ ((Y << 13) | (Y >> 19))) ^ ((Width << 26) | (Width >> 6))) ^ ((Height << 7) | (Height >> 25))) expression for the hash code, which seems to perform as expected.

Edit 2:

‘System.Double’ has a nice implementation as it does not consider each bit equally important

public override unsafe int GetHashCode() //from System.Double
{
    double num = this;
    if (num == 0.0)
    {
        return 0;
    }
    long num2 = *((long*) &num);
    return (((int) num2) ^ ((int) (num2 >> 32)));
}

Answer 1

Jon skeet has this covered:

What is the best algorithm for an overridden System.Object.GetHashCode?

   public override int GetHashCode()
   {
       unchecked // Overflow is fine, just wrap
       {
           int hash = 17;
           // Suitable nullity checks etc, of course :)
           hash = hash * 23 + X.GetHashCode();
           hash = hash * 23 + Y.GetHashCode();
           return hash;
       }
   }

Also, change your Equals(object) implementation to:

return Equals(obj as FVector2);

Note however that this could perceive a derived type to be equal. If you don’t want that, you’d have to compare the runtime type other.GetType() with typeof(FVector2) (and don’t forget nullity checks) Thanks for pointing out it’s a struct, LukH

Resharper has nice code generation for equality and hash code, so if you have resharper you can let it do its thing