can getters be used in equals and hashcode?

Question

I have below code which overrides equals() and hashcode() methods.

public boolean equals(Object obj)
 {
   if (obj == null)
     return false;
   if (!(obj instanceof Name))
     return false;
   Name name = (Name) obj;
   return this.name.equals(name.name);
 }

 public int hashCode()
 {
   return name.hashCode();
 }

here can i replace below 2 lines:

return this.name.equals(name.name);
return name.hashCode();

with

return this.getName().equals(name.getName());
return getName().hashCode();

i mean instead of using properties can i directly use getters inside equals and hashcode methods?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Yes sure you could use this,

hashcode() and equals() are field methods, They can access private members directly, but what if there is some logic wrapped in accessor method, so it is always safe to access fields using accessor methods