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Date: Mon, 16 May 2011 03:53:21 -0700
From: Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org>
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Subject: Re: Did the sort do anything?
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On 5/15/2011 10:57 PM, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
> In message<N6-dnSCv9viQDE3QnZ2dnUVZ_v6dnZ2d@earthlink.com>, Patricia
> Shanahan wrote:
>
>> On 5/15/2011 7:32 PM, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
>>
>>> If, on the other hand, you were sorting immutable objects of a Java
>>> “reference” type where the key was the entire object state, then
>>> stability would indeed be irrelevant, notwithstanding such types are not
>>> considered “primitive”.
>>
>> Do you consider the result of System.identityHashCode(x) to be part of
>> the state of the object referenced by x?
>
> It is computed from the state, is it not?
>

Only if you consider it to be part of the state. Distinct objects
probably have different identity hash codes regardless of whether their
fields all have the same values.

Its existence ensures that program behavior can be affected by object
sort stability or instability, even if the sort key includes all fields.
The sort key would have to also include the identity hash code to make
stability irrelevant.

Patricia