A tutorial on using your own objects as keys in Maps or in Sets. To use your own objects as keys in Maps or in Sets you need to tell Java how to compare your objects, by implementing the hashCode() and equals() methods. Fortunately all decent IDEs will do this for you.

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Code For This Tutorial

App.java:

import java.util.LinkedHashMap;
import java.util.LinkedHashSet;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.Set;

class Person {
	private int id;
	private String name;
	
	public Person(int id, String name) {
		this.id = id;
		this.name = name;
	}
	
	public String toString() {
		return "{ID is: " + id + "; name is: " + name + "}";
	}

	@Override
	public int hashCode() {
		final int prime = 31;
		int result = 1;
		result = prime * result + id;
		result = prime * result + ((name == null) ? 0 : name.hashCode());
		return result;
	}

	@Override
	public boolean equals(Object obj) {
		if (this == obj)
			return true;
		if (obj == null)
			return false;
		if (getClass() != obj.getClass())
			return false;
		final Person other = (Person) obj;
		if (id != other.id)
			return false;
		if (name == null) {
			if (other.name != null)
				return false;
		} else if (!name.equals(other.name))
			return false;
		return true;
	}
	
	
}


public class App {

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		
		Person p1 = new Person(0, "Bob");
		Person p2 = new Person(1, "Sue");
		Person p3 = new Person(2, "Mike");
		Person p4 = new Person(1, "Sue");
		
		Map<Person, Integer> map = new LinkedHashMap<Person, Integer>();
		
		map.put(p1, 1);
		map.put(p2, 2);
		map.put(p3, 3);
		map.put(p4, 1);
		
		for(Person key: map.keySet()) {
			System.out.println(key + ": " + map.get(key));
		}
		
		Set<Person> set = new LinkedHashSet<Person>();
		
		set.add(p1);
		set.add(p2);
		set.add(p3);
		set.add(p4);
		
		System.out.println(set);
	}

}

{ID is: 0; name is: Bob}: 1
{ID is: 1; name is: Sue}: 1
{ID is: 2; name is: Mike}: 3
[{ID is: 0; name is: Bob}, {ID is: 1; name is: Sue}, {ID is: 2; name is: Mike}]

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