Can you explain the difference between "==", ".equals()", and "hashCode()" in Java?
==
: Compares object references to check if they refer to the same memory location..equals()
: A method from theObject
class (overridable) used to compare the contents or values of objects. It's used for meaningful comparison.hashCode()
: A method from theObject
class (overridable) that returns a hash code value for an object. It's used for efficient storage and retrieval from hash-based data structures.