C# Language Tutorial => Equals and GetHashCode in IEqualityComparator

Example

For given type Person:

public class Person
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public int Age { get; set; }
    public string Clothes { get; set; }
}

List<Person> persons = new List<Person>
{
    new Person{ Name = "Jon", Age = 20, Clothes = "some clothes"},
    new Person{ Name = "Dave", Age = 20, Clothes = "some other clothes"},
    new Person{ Name = "Jon", Age = 20, Clothes = ""}
};

var distinctPersons = persons.Distinct().ToList();// distinctPersons has Count = 3

But defining Equals and GetHashCode into an IEqualityComparator :

public class PersonComparator : IEqualityComparer<Person>
{
    public bool Equals(Person x, Person y)
    {
        return x.Name == y.Name && x.Age == y.Age; //the clothes are not important when comparing two persons;
    }

    public int GetHashCode(Person obj) { return obj.Name.GetHashCode() * obj.Age; }
}

var distinctPersons = persons.Distinct(new PersonComparator()).ToList();// distinctPersons has Count = 2

Note that for this query, two objects have been considered equal if both the Equals returned true and the GetHashCode have returned the same hash code for the two persons.

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C# Language Equals and GetHashCode Equals and GetHashCode in IEqualityComparator

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