IElementComparer (Eclipse Platform API Specification)

```
public interface IElementComparer
```
This interface is used to compare elements in a viewer for equality, and to provide the hash code for an element. This allows the client of the viewer to specify different equality criteria and a different hash code implementation than the equals and hashCode implementations of the elements themselves.

See Also:

StructuredViewer.setComparer(org.eclipse.jface.viewers.IElementComparer)

Method Summary

All Methods Instance Methods Abstract Methods
Modifier and Type	Method	Description
`boolean`	`equals(Object a, Object b)`	Compares two elements for equality
`int`	`hashCode(Object element)`	Returns the hash code for the given element.

- Method Detail
  - equals
```
boolean equals(Object a,
               Object b)
```
    Compares two elements for equality
    
    Parameters:
    
    a - the first element
    
    b - the second element
    
    Returns:
    
    whether a is equal to b
  - hashCode
```
int hashCode(Object element)
```
    Returns the hash code for the given element.
    
    Parameters:
    
    element - the element the hash code is calculated for
    
    Returns:
    
    the hash code for the given element