Comparing dynamic fields of objects using equals and hashCode methods

Question

To compare the different objects of the same class with their contents like jobTitleId, classificationId, deptId & classificationId was to be done and do some manipulations later using Set and Map. I was able to do that by simply overriding the equals and hashCode methods of Object class and was able to fetch the information (like in the following Map).
    Map<LocationData, List<LocationData>>
The following is the class I used (its been shown to you so that it can be referred for my problem statement):
LocationData class
    package com.astreait.bulkloader;
    public class LocationData {    
        String locId, deptId, jobTitleId, classificationId;
        @Override  
        public boolean equals(Object obj) {        
            LocationData ld = (LocationData)obj;       
            return this.deptId.equals(ld.deptId) && this.jobTitleId.equals(ld.jobTitleId) && this.classificationId.equals(ld.classificationId) &&
    this.locId.equals(ld.locId);   
        @Override  
        public int hashCode() {        
            return deptId.hashCode() + jobTitleId.hashCode() + classificationId.hashCode() +locId.hashCode();  
Problem:
I'm already known to which all fields of this object I need to make the comparison.
i.e I'm bound to use the variables named classificationId, deptId, jobTitleId & locId etc.
Need:
I need to customize this logic such that the fields Names (classificationId, deptId, jobTitleId & locId etc) can be pulled dynamically along with their values. So, as far as my understanding I made use of 2 classes (TableClass and ColWithData) such that the List of ColWithData is there in TableClass object.
I'm thinking what if I override the same two methods `equals() & hashCode();`
such that the same can be achieved.
    TableClass class #1
    class TableClass{
        List<ColWithData> cwdList;
        @Override
        public boolean equals(Object obj) {
            boolean returnVal = false;
                    // I need to have the logic to be defined such that
                    // all of the dynamic fields can be compared
            return returnVal;
        @Override
        public int hashCode() {
            int returnVal = 0;
                    // I need to have the logic to be defined such that
                    // all of the dynamic fields can be found for their individual hashCodes
            return returnVal;
ColWithData class #2
    class ColWithData{
        String col; // here the jobTitleId, classificationId, deptId, locId or any other more fields info can come.
        String data; // The corresponding data or value for each jobTitleId, classificationId, deptId, locId or any other more fields.
Please let me know if I'm proceeding in the right direction or I should make some any other approach. If it is ok to use the current approach then what should be performed in the equals and hashCode methods?
Finally I need to make the map as: (Its not the concern how I will make, but can be considered as my desired result from this logic)
    Map<TableClass, List<TableClass>> finalMap;

Answer 1

Hello,
What is the relation with the Oracle Forms tool ?
Francois