The hash value of the value, which allows the value to be an element of a hash-based set or key of a hash-based map. Implementations must respect the constraint that:

• if x==y then x.hash==y.hash.

Therefore, a class which refines equals must also refine hash.

In general, hash values vary between platforms and between executions of the same program.

Note that when executing on a Java Virtual Machine, the 64-bit Integer value returned by an implementation of hash is truncated to a 32-bit integer value by removal of the 32 highest order bits, before returning the value to the caller.

Determine if two values are equal. Implementations should respect the constraints that:

• if x===y then x==y (reflexivity),
• if x==y then y==x (symmetry),
• if x==y and y==z then x==z (transitivity).

Furthermore it is recommended that implementations ensure that if x==y then x and y have the same concrete class.

A class which explicitly refines equals() is said to support value equality, and the equality operator == is considered much more meaningful for such classes than for a class which simply inherits the default implementation of identity equality from Identifiable.

Note that an implementation of equals() that always returns false does satisfy the constraints given above. Therefore, in very rare cases where there is no reasonable definition of value equality for a class, for example, function references (Callable), it is acceptable for equals() to be defined to return false for every argument.