Classes, Encapsulation, and the equals/hashCode Pair

Where you are: Week 0 review > Classes, encapsulation, and equals/hashCode

This part of the review is three short lessons. Work them in order:

1. Writing a class: private fields, a validating constructor, getters and setters, and toString.
2. References: arrows, ==, and aliasing: a reference is an arrow to an object, and what == compares.
3. equals and hashCode: comparing contents, and why the two methods must be overridden together.

Finish all three before moving on to Comparable, composition, and Comparator, the bridge into CSCD 211.

Resources

Canonical: BJP (Reges and Stepp) §8.1-8.4 (classes and encapsulation), §9 (Object methods); Liang 10e §9 (Objects and Classes), §10 (Object-Oriented Thinking). Section numbers are grounded from the published tables of contents; exact page numbers depend on the printing and are pending a faculty spot-check.