Question

Here is the hashCode() implementation from Java HashTable Class. What if the number of elements in the hashtable is huge and the hashcode exceeds the INTEGER MAX LIMIT -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647 ? I assume hashCodes will be positive integers.

 public synchronized int hashCode() {

    int h = 0;
    if (count == 0 || loadFactor < 0)
        return h;  // Returns zero

    loadFactor = -loadFactor;  // Mark hashCode computation in progress
    Entry[] tab = table;
    for (int i = 0; i < tab.length; i++)
        for (Entry e = tab[i]; e != null; e = e.next)
            h += e.key.hashCode() ^ e.value.hashCode();
    loadFactor = -loadFactor;  // Mark hashCode computation complete

    return h;
}

Answer 1

I assume hashCodes will be positive integers.

No, not necessarily. They’re just integers. They can definitely be negative, and it’s fine to have integer overflow while computing a hash code. An ideal hash code will be spread uniformly across the whole of its range (int in this case). Anything using a hash code definitely needs to take into account the possibility of the value being negative.