[Biojava-l] equals() method for SymbolList

[Schreiber, Mark]

Actually AbstractSymbolList (from which all the SymbolLists inherit) on
BioJava live contains a logical equals() method and a Hashcode method.
The hashcode method may not be the most efficient.

- Mark


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Phillip Lord [mailto:p.lord@russet.org.uk] 
> Sent: Saturday, 12 October 2002 5:01 a.m.
> To: biojava-l@biojava.org
> Subject: Re: [Biojava-l] equals() method for SymbolList
> 
> 
> >>>>> "Keith" == Keith James <kdj@sanger.ac.uk> writes:
> 
> >>>>> "Phillip" == Phillip Lord <p.lord@russet.org.uk> writes:
> 
> >>>>> "Matthew" == Matthew Pocock <matthew_pocock@yahoo.co.uk> writes:
> 
>   Matthew> SymbolList should be behaving like a string over its
>   Matthew> symbols. It is silly if it doesn't do this. Hash codes
>   Matthew> should realy be calculated in a different (but
>   Matthew> sequence-dependant) way to avoid scanning the whole of very
>   Matthew> large sequences just to do a hash lookup. Anyone got any
>   Matthew> ideas?
> 
>   Phillip> Just make the hash out of say the first 10 elements in the
>   Phillip> list. The hashcode is not meant to be unique for all
>   Phillip> sequences, it's just a performance enhancement. So long as
>   Phillip> equals returns false for different sequences, then there is
>   Phillip> no problem.
> 
>   Keith> in a similar vein, the array sampling techniques at
> 
>   Keith> http://www273.pair.com/med/columns/Durable6.html
> 
>   Keith> would work, but equals would get called more often for
>   Keith> sequences with similar base composition. How about first 10
>   Keith> and then add in values for just the indices that are powers
>   Keith> of two?
> 
> Probably be a good idea to factor in the length of the 
> Alphabet as well. If there are only a few symbols you get 
> much more chance of a collision because there are only unique 
> values for the elements.
> 
> You will still get problems though if the sequence underneath 
> changes, while you are using it as a hash key.
> 
> Right, I really am going back to lurking now. 
> 
> Phil
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