Java HashMap containsKey returns false for existing object

Question

I have a HashMap for storing objects:

    private Map<T, U> fields = Collections.synchronizedMap(new HashMap<T, U>());

but, when trying to check existence of a key, containsKey method returns false.
equals and hashCode methods are implemented, but the key is not found.
When debugging a piece of code:

    return fields.containsKey(bean) && fields.get(bean).isChecked();

I have:

   bean.hashCode() = 1979946475 
   fields.keySet().iterator().next().hashCode() = 1979946475    
   bean.equals(fields.keySet().iterator().next())= true 
   fields.keySet().iterator().next().equals(bean) = true

but

fields.containsKey(bean) = false

What could cause such strange behavioure?

public class Address extends DtoImpl<Long, Long> implements Serializable{

   <fields>
   <getters and setters>

@Override
public int hashCode() {
    final int prime = 31;
    int result = 1;
    result = prime * result + StringUtils.trimToEmpty(street).hashCode();
    result = prime * result + StringUtils.trimToEmpty(town).hashCode();
    result = prime * result + StringUtils.trimToEmpty(code).hashCode();
    result = prime * result + ((country == null) ? 0 : country.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;
    Address other = (Address) obj;
    if (!StringUtils.trimToEmpty(street).equals(StringUtils.trimToEmpty(other.getStreet())))
        return false;
    if (!StringUtils.trimToEmpty(town).equals(StringUtils.trimToEmpty(other.getTown())))
        return false;
    if (!StringUtils.trimToEmpty(code).equals(StringUtils.trimToEmpty(other.getCode())))
        return false;
    if (country == null) {
        if (other.country != null)
            return false;
    } else if (!country.equals(other.country))
        return false;
    return true;
}


}

We need more code, including equals/hashCode and where you're inserting the bean. — chrylis -cautiouslyoptimistic-, Feb 06 '14 at 10:36
Provide more code or try to debug the containsKey method to spot the problem. — Jean Logeart, Feb 06 '14 at 10:39
My crystal ball says that a value (field) of the Key object has been changed *after* it has been inserted into the HashMap. That is, it was placed into a bin where it can no longer be found with its *new* hashCode — Marco13, Feb 06 '14 at 10:40
Either the key has been modified or your implementation of `equals()/hashcode` is wrong. — Arnaud Denoyelle, Feb 06 '14 at 10:41
Can you show us your `equals()` and `hashCode()` method? And also some more code surrounding that part. — Rohit Jain, Feb 06 '14 at 10:41
The bean was change after the putting it into the map, but the hashCode method returns the same value still (see original message). — agad, Feb 06 '14 at 10:44
The hashcode is only the first step to find the key. If your new objects does not equal the old one, then the key will not be found. — Arnaud Denoyelle, Feb 06 '14 at 10:45
What is the class of the map key? Is it `Address`? If not, show the listing for the key class — Bohemian, Feb 06 '14 at 10:47
@agad the hashcode is used to separate the keys into small subsets, then `equals` is tested on each object in the set which has the good hashcode. If none of these objects verify `equals()` then your key will not be found. — Arnaud Denoyelle, Feb 06 '14 at 10:47
As I have written in the post: in the time of checking the hashCode of the bean is the same as the hashCode of the 1st element of the map. Also equals method (bean.equals(1st element) and (1st element).equals(bean)) returns true. — agad, Feb 06 '14 at 10:51
@ArnaudDenoyelle the methods are generated by Eclipse. I only slightly changed it to use StringUtils class. — agad, Feb 06 '14 at 10:53
Have you debugged into the `containsKey` method with Eclipse? You could see where it fails. — Sentry, Feb 06 '14 at 11:01
And what happens inside getEntry(key) ? _You have to go deeper_ — Sentry, Feb 06 '14 at 11:10
(e.hash == hash && ((k = e.key) == key || (key != null && key.equals(k))) returns false, but I don't see values. — agad, Feb 06 '14 at 11:21

score 32 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 30 '18 at 06:28

You shall not modify the key after having inserted it in the map.

Edit : I found the extract of javadoc in Map :

Note: great care must be exercised if mutable objects are used as map keys. The behavior of a map is not specified if the value of an object is changed in a manner that affects equals comparisons while the object is a key in the map.

Example with a simple wrapper class:

public static class MyWrapper {

  private int i;

  public MyWrapper(int i) {
    this.i = i;
  }

  public void setI(int i) {
    this.i = i;
  }

  @Override
  public boolean equals(Object o) {
    if (this == o) return true;
    if (o == null || getClass() != o.getClass()) return false;
    return i == ((MyWrapper) o).i;
  }

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

and the test :

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
  Map<MyWrapper, String> map = new HashMap<MyWrapper, String>();
  MyWrapper wrapper = new MyWrapper(1);
  map.put(wrapper, "hello");
  System.out.println(map.containsKey(wrapper));
  wrapper.setI(2);
  System.out.println(map.containsKey(wrapper));
}

Output :

true
false

Note : If you dont override hashcode() then you will get true only

This is what I would expect. But I don't change the fields use in hashCode (equals) — agad, Feb 06 '14 at 11:13

yshavit · Answer 2 · 2014-02-06T11:12:01.270

As Arnaud Denoyelle points out, modifying a key can have this effect. The reason is that containsKey cares about the key's bucket in the hash map, while the iterator doesn't. If the first key in your map --disregarding buckets -- just happens to be the one you want, then you can get the behavior you're seeing. If there's only one entry in the map, this is of course guaranteed.

Imagine a simple, two-bucket map:

[0: empty]  [1: yourKeyValue]

The iterator goes like this:

iterate over all of the elements in bucket 0: there are none
iterate over all the elements in bucket 1: just the one yourKeyValue

The containsKey method, however, goes like this:

keyToFind has a hashCode() == 0, so let me look in bucket 0 (and only there). Oh, it's empty -- return false.

In fact, even if the key stays in the same bucket, you'll still have this problem! If you look at the implementation of HashMap, you'll see that each key-value pair is stored along with the key's hash code. When the map wants to check the stored key against an incoming one, it uses both this hashCode and the key's equals:

((k = e.key) == key || (key != null && key.equals(k))))

This is a nice optimization, since it means that keys with different hashCodes that happen to collide into the same bucket will be seen as non-equal very cheaply (just an int comparison). But it also means that changing the key -- which will not change the stored e.key field -- will break the map.

score 8 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 03 '14 at 22:15

Debugging the java source code I realized that the method containsKey checks two things on the searched key against every element in the key set: hashCode and equals; and it does it in that order.

It means that if obj1.hashCode() != obj2.hashCode(), it returns false (without evaluating obj1.equals(obj2). But, if obj1.hashCode() == obj2.hashCode(), then it returns obj1.equals(obj2)

You have to be sure that both methods -may be you have to override them- evaluate to true for your defined criteria.

Thank you so much! I had been banging my head against the wall for a couple of hours on this one! — idungotnosn, Jan 28 '20 at 22:44

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 06 '14 at 11:07

Here is SSCCE for your issue bellow. It works like a charm and it couldn't be else, because your hashCode and equals methods seem to be autogenerated by IDE and they look fine.

So, the keyword is when debugging. Debug itself can harm your data. For example somewhere in debug window you set expression which changes your fields object or bean object. After that your other expressions will give you unexpected result.

Try to add all this checks inside your method from where you got return statement and print out their results.

import org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils;

import java.io.Serializable;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;

public class Q21600344 {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        MapClass<Address, Checkable> mapClass = new MapClass<>();
        mapClass.put(new Address("a", "b", "c", "d"), new Checkable() {
            @Override
            public boolean isChecked() {
                return true;
            }
        });

        System.out.println(mapClass.isChecked(new Address("a", "b", "c", "d")));
    }

}

interface Checkable {
    boolean isChecked();
}

class MapClass<T, U extends Checkable> {
    private Map<T, U> fields = Collections.synchronizedMap(new HashMap<T, U>());

    public boolean isChecked(T bean) {
        return fields.containsKey(bean) && fields.get(bean).isChecked();
    }

    public void put(T t, U u) {
        fields.put(t, u);
    }
}

class Address implements Serializable {

    private String street;
    private String town;
    private String code;
    private String country;

    Address(String street, String town, String code, String country) {
        this.street = street;
        this.town = town;
        this.code = code;
        this.country = country;
    }

    String getStreet() {
        return street;
    }

    String getTown() {
        return town;
    }

    String getCode() {
        return code;
    }

    String getCountry() {
        return country;
    }

    @Override
    public int hashCode() {
        final int prime = 31;
        int result = 1;
        result = prime * result + StringUtils.trimToEmpty(street).hashCode();
        result = prime * result + StringUtils.trimToEmpty(town).hashCode();
        result = prime * result + StringUtils.trimToEmpty(code).hashCode();
        result = prime * result + ((country == null) ? 0 : country.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;
        Address other = (Address) obj;
        if (!StringUtils.trimToEmpty(street).equals(StringUtils.trimToEmpty(other.getStreet())))
            return false;
        if (!StringUtils.trimToEmpty(town).equals(StringUtils.trimToEmpty(other.getTown())))
            return false;
        if (!StringUtils.trimToEmpty(code).equals(StringUtils.trimToEmpty(other.getCode())))
            return false;
        if (country == null) {
            if (other.country != null)
                return false;
        } else if (!country.equals(other.country))
            return false;
        return true;
    }


}

Seems, that really something happens with the key. But what can be wrong if equals and hashCode returns true??? (following code works: for (Entry b : fields.entrySet()) { if (b.getKey().equals(bean) && b.getValue().isChecked()){ return true; } } return false; ) — agad, Feb 06 '14 at 11:33
Problem was with hashCode and equals methods of `country` field. When I fixed them, all has started to work properly :$ — agad, Feb 06 '14 at 13:35

Java HashMap containsKey returns false for existing object

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