I have a hashtable base class and I am creating different type of hashtable by deriving from it. I only allow it to accept objects that implement my IHashable interface.For example -
class LinearProbingHashTable<T> : HashTableBase<T> where T: IHashable
{
...
...
...
}
interface IHashable
{
/**
* Every IHashable implementation should provide an indentfying value for use in generating a hash key.
*/
int getIdentifier();
}
class Car : IHashable
{
public String Make { get; set; }
public String Model { get; set; }
public String Color { get; set; }
public int Year { get; set; }
public int getIdentifier()
{
/// ???
}
}
Can anyone suggest a good method for generating an identifier for the car that can be used by the hash function to place it in the hash table?
I am actually really looking for a general purpose solution to generating an id for any given class. I would like to have a base class for all classes, HashableObject, that implements IHashable and its getIdentifier method. So then I could just derive from HashableObject which would automatically provide an identifier for any instances. Which means I wouldn't have to write a different getIdentifier method for every object I add to the hashtable.
public class HashableObject : IHashable
{
public int getIdentifier()
{
// Looking for code here that would generate an id for any object...
}
}
public class Dog : HashableObject
{
// Dont need to implement getIdentifier because the parent class does it for me
}