Iequatable Of T And Gethashcode

This is a bit of a follow up to a previous post we discussed how to properly implement equality in VB. Several users commented/asked that IEquatable(Of T) could be used in place of overriding Equals(). Since IEquatable(Of T) doesn’t define a GetHashCode() method the user didn’t need to define it and hence run into all of the problems associated with GetHashCode() usage.

Unfortunately this is not the case. Several parts of the framework link IEquatable(Of T).Equals and Object.GetHashCode() in the same way that Object.Equals() and Object.GetHashCode() are linked.

The prime example of this is EqualityComparer(Of T). This class is used to provide instances of IEqualityComparer(Of T) for any given type. Under the hood it tries to determine the best way checking for equality in types. If T implements IEquatable(Of T) it will eventually create an instance of GenericEqualityComparer(Of T) ¹. The methods of IEqualityComparer(Of T) are implemented as follows (boundary cases removed)

• Equals(left, right): return left.Equals(right)
  • Equals in this case is IEquatable(Of T).Equals
• GetHashCode(obj): return obj.GetHashCode()

This implicitly links IEquatable(Of T).Equals to Object.GetHashCode(). Therefore if you implement IEquatable(Of T) you should also override GetHashCode(). The best way to view this is “if you implement IEquatable(Of T) you should override Equals and GetHashCode.”

What’s even more unfortunate is there is no feedback to indicate this relationship exists. If you override Equals or GetHashCode both the C# and VB compilers will issue a warning/error. Implementing IEquatable(Of T) produces no such warning.