Bad idea to use String key in HashMap?

Question

I understand that the String class\' hashCode() method is not guarantied to generate unique hash codes for distinct String-s. I see a lot of usage of putting Strin

Answer 1

You are talking about hash collisions. Hash collisions are an issue regardless of the type being hashCode'd. All classes that use hashCode (e.g. HashMap) handle hash collisions just fine. For example, HashMap can store multiple objects per bucket.

Don't worry about it unless you are calling hashCode yourself. Hash collisions, though rare, don't break anything.