which hashCode() is faster ??????

[Sanjit Kumar]

While goiing through the K&B certifivcation book, I found the following code and lines:
FIRST : public int hashCode() {return name.length(); }
SECOND: public int hashCode() {return 4; }

It was written in the book that SECOND hashcode method is slower than the FIRST hascode.
What does it means of saying faster(or slower) hashcode in the present context??
Please explain if anyone having clear idea of this.
Thanks in advance.
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[Barry Gaunt]

It obviously does not mean the computation of the hashcode because in this example the first computation needs more effort than the second.

What it means is - if you use objects with these hashfunctions in a searchable (hash based) collection, then it will take longer in the second case to find the object within the collection because all the objects would be in the same hash bucket. (Unless the names are all of the same length, of course).
[ January 30, 2007: Message edited by: Barry Gaunt ]