Path: csiph.com!x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net!usenet.pasdenom.info!aioe.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Spock Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer Subject: Re: Did the sort do anything? Date: Fri, 13 May 2011 16:56:46 -0400 Organization: Starfleet Lines: 9 Message-ID: References: <2ggqs65vbuqtamqq4318v0la4hged4a3ro@4ax.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: +hc/f1jFBsXYvcrRtR/50Q.user.speranza.aioe.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Complaints-To: abuse@aioe.org User-Agent: Forte Agent 2.0/32.652 X-Notice: Filtered by postfilter v. 0.8.2 Xref: x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net comp.lang.java.programmer:4060 On 13/05/2011 10:40 AM, Roedy Green wrote: > In some cases you can tolerate a small rate of error. I would think > often mistaking a no-change for a change would not be catastrophic, > though the opposite normally would be. I don't think any > hashCode/checksum method could guarantee 100% accuracy. Unfortunately, hashCode/checksum methods will never detect change where there is none, but may sometimes detect no change when there is one, which is precisely the type of error that would be more serious.