How to generate a checksum for an java object

Question

I\'m looking for a solution to generate a checksum for any type of Java object, which remains the same for every execution of an application that produces the same object.

Answer 1

If you're f you're using Eclipse IDE then it has actions (under Source menu) to generate hashcode and equals functions. It allows you to choose the attributes of the class you want in the hashcode. This is similar to using the HashCodeBuilder approach that has already been suggested.

Alternatively you could stream the object to a byte array and generate an MD5 of that.