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copied!<p>The <code>^</code> is not a power, it is bit wise exclusive OR. The purpose of a hash code is to have a random distribution and <code>^</code> has slightly better properties than <code>+</code> but not enough that most people care.</p> <p>BTW There is no power operator in Java, only <code>Math.pow(a, b)</code></p> <hr> <p>I am probably wrong but, the way I remember it is;</p> <p>You want an operation which has an equal chance of producing 0 or 1 for each bit. This excludes multiplication, division, modulus, and, or, or shifting. This leaves ^, -, or +. When you overflow you lose a bit of information and <code>^</code> is the only one which doesn't overflow.</p> <p>In the example above, the codes might not be larger enough to overflow, and even if you use <code>+</code> instead, I expect the difference to be very small.</p> <hr> <p>I am not mathematical expert on the subject, but to me <code>+</code> seems a better option. If you have the following (using 0-255 bytes, but it should be representative or what happens with <code>int</code> values)</p> <pre><code>int[] add = new int[256]; int[] xor = new int[256]; for (int i = 0; i < 256; i++) for (int j = 0; j < 256; j++) { add[(i + j) & 0xFF]++; xor[i ^ j]++; } System.out.println("add: " + Arrays.toString(add)); System.out.println("xor: " + Arrays.toString(xor)); </code></pre> <p>you have an equal chance of every value occurring.</p> <pre><code>add: [256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256] xor: [256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256, 256] </code></pre> <p>if we assume a biased distribution, such as the range of ASCII values, 0 to 127, there is a chance a bit which is not set in either value will be set with add, but not xor.</p> <pre><code>add: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 127, 126, 125, 124, 123, 122, 121, 120, 119, 118, 117, 116, 115, 114, 113, 112, 111, 110, 109, 108, 107, 106, 105, 104, 103, 102, 101, 100, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 91, 90, 89, 88, 87, 86, 85, 84, 83, 82, 81, 80, 79, 78, 77, 76, 75, 74, 73, 72, 71, 70, 69, 68, 67, 66, 65, 64, 63, 62, 61, 60, 59, 58, 57, 56, 55, 54, 53, 52, 51, 50, 49, 48, 47, 46, 45, 44, 43, 42, 41, 40, 39, 38, 37, 36, 35, 34, 33, 32, 31, 30, 29, 28, 27, 26, 25, 24, 23, 22, 21, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0] xor: [128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 128, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0] </code></pre> <p>and you take a modulus, of say 37, the distribution appears more even with + (The difference between the most common and least common result is smaller)</p> <p>add: [243, 244, 245, 246, 247, 248, 249, 250, 251, 252, 253, 252, 251, 250, 249, 248, 247, 246, 245, 244, 243, 242, 241, 240, 239, 238, 237, 237, 237, 237, 237, 237, 238, 239, 240, 241, 242, 0, 0, ..</p> <p>xor: [283, 282, 282, 282, 282, 282, 282, 282, 282, 282, 282, 282, 282, 282, 282, 282, 282, 218, 218, 218, 218, 218, 220, 220, 220, 220, 220, 220, 220, 220, 220, 220, 188, 188, 188, 188, 188, 0, 0, ...</p>

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