Question

I’ve been encountering some strange behavior when trying to find a key inside a java.util.HashMap, and I guess I’m missing something. The code segment is basically:

HashMap<Key, Value> data = ...
Key k1 = ...

Value v = data.get(k1);
boolean bool1 = data.containsKey(k1);
for (Key k2 : data.keySet()) {
    boolean bool2 = k1.equals(k2);
    boolean bool3 = k2.equals(k1);
    boolean bool4 = k1.hashCode() == k2.hashCode();
    break;
}

That strange for loop is there because for a specific execution I happen to know that data contains only one item at this point and it is k1, and indeed bool2, bool3 and bool4 will be evaluated to true in that execution. bool1, however, will be evaluated to false, and v will be null.

Now, this is part of a bigger program – I could not reproduce the error on a smaller sample – but still it seems to me that no matter what the rest of the program does, this behavior should never happen.

EDIT: I have manually verified that the hash code does not change between the time the object was inserted to the map and the time it was queried. I’ll keep checking this venue, but is there any other option?

Answer 1

This behavior could happen if the hash code of the key were changed after it was inserted in to the map.

Here’s an example with the behavior you described:

public class Key
{
int hashCode = 0;

@Override
public int hashCode() {
    return hashCode;
}

@Override
public boolean equals(Object obj) {
    if (this == obj)
        return true;
    if (obj == null)
        return false;
    if (getClass() != obj.getClass())
        return false;
    Key other = (Key) obj;
    return hashCode == other.hashCode;
}

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
    HashMap<Key, Integer> data = new HashMap<Key, Integer>();
    Key k1 = new Key();
    data.put(k1, 1);

    k1.hashCode = 1;

    boolean bool1 = data.containsKey(k1);
    for (Key k2 : data.keySet()) {
        boolean bool2 = k1.equals(k2);
        boolean bool3 = k2.equals(k1);
        boolean bool4 = k1.hashCode() == k2.hashCode();

        System.out.println("bool1: " + bool1);
        System.out.println("bool2: " + bool2);
        System.out.println("bool3: " + bool3);
        System.out.println("bool4: " + bool4);

        break;
    }
}
}