Question

I’m trying to compare custom type in two List<T> and use the Intersect / Except method. The equality is determined by three fields of this type. The equality is based on more than the ordinary condition (all fields contains the same data). I implemented of course the IEqualityComparer<T>. My problem is that the GetHashCode() method return not equal once the hashCode is not the same and this does not help me since this is not true in my case.

Is there any way to compare two custom object when equality is based on more than one condition so I can use intersect/except/distinct etc…?

Here is my code :

public bool Equals(ComparableObject x, ComparableObject y)
{
    if (Object.ReferenceEquals(x, null) || Object.ReferenceEquals(y, null))
        return false;

    if (Object.ReferenceEquals(x, y))
        return true;

    if (x.Var1.Equals(y.Var1) && x.Var3.Equals(y.Var3) && !x.Var2.Equals(y.Var2))
        return false;

    if (x.Var1.Equals(y.Var1) && !x.Var3.Equals(y.Var3) && !x.Var2.Equals(y.Var2))
        return true;


    if (!x.Var1.Equals(y.Var1) && x.Var3.Equals(y.Var3) && !x.Var2.Equals(y.Var2))
        return false;

    if (!x.Var1.Equals(y.Var1) && x.Var3.Equals(y.Var3) && x.Var2.Equals(y.Var2))
        return true;

    if (x.Var1.Equals(y.Var1) && !x.Var3.Equals(y.Var3) && x.Var2.Equals(y.Var2))
        return false;

    if (!x.Var1.Equals(y.Var1) && !x.Var3.Equals(y.Var3) && x.Var2.Equals(y.Var2))
        return false;

    if (!x.Var1.Equals(y.Var1) && !x.Var3.Equals(y.Var3) && !x.Var2.Equals(y.Var2))
        return false;


    return x.Var1.Equals(y.Var1) && x.Var1.Equals(y.Var1) && x.Var3.Equals(y.Var3);
}


public int GetHashCode(ComparableObject x)
{
    return obj.Var1.GetHashCode() ^ obj.Var2.GetHashCode()^ obj.Var3.GetHashCode()
}

Answer 1

It is your job to provide such GetHashCode() that the value it returns will be different for objects that are different (in as many cases as possible; you still may return same hash code for non-equal objects), and will always be same for objects that may be equal (in all cases; you may not return different hash code for equal objects).

For instance, if one of the three fields you compare is an int, you can return that field as GetHashCode().

If, however, it’s difficult to come up with something clever, you can return a constant, such as 42. This way Equals() will be called for all object pairs, delivering expected results, although in the least performant way.