Class KeyFactory


  • public abstract class KeyFactory
    extends java.lang.Object
    Generates classes to handle multi-valued keys, for use in things such as Maps and Sets. Code for equals and hashCode methods follow the the rules laid out in Effective Java by Joshua Bloch.

    To generate a KeyFactory, you need to supply an interface which describes the structure of the key. The interface should have a single method named newInstance, which returns an Object. The arguments array can be anything--Objects, primitive values, or single or multi-dimension arrays of either. For example:

         private interface IntStringKey {
             public Object newInstance(int i, String s);
         }
     

    Once you have made a KeyFactory, you generate a new key by calling the newInstance method defined by your interface.

         IntStringKey factory = (IntStringKey)KeyFactory.create(IntStringKey.class);
         Object key1 = factory.newInstance(4, "Hello");
         Object key2 = factory.newInstance(4, "World");
     

    Note: hashCode equality between two keys key1 and key2 is only guaranteed if key1.equals(key2) and the keys were produced by the same factory.

    Version:
    $Id: KeyFactory.java,v 1.26 2006/03/05 02:43:19 herbyderby Exp $
    • Field Detail

      • CLASS_BY_NAME

        public static final Customizer CLASS_BY_NAME
      • HASH_ASM_TYPE

        public static final HashCodeCustomizer HASH_ASM_TYPE
        Type.hashCode() is very expensive as it traverses full descriptor to calculate hash code. This customizer uses Type.getSort() as a hash code.
      • OBJECT_BY_CLASS

        @Deprecated
        public static final Customizer OBJECT_BY_CLASS
        Deprecated.
        this customizer might result in unexpected class leak since key object still holds a strong reference to the Object and class. It is recommended to have pre-processing method that would strip Objects and represent Classes as Strings
    • Constructor Detail

      • KeyFactory

        protected KeyFactory()