Time Complexity (Big O) | O(1) for Get, Put, ContainsKey, and Remove methods | O(1) for Get, Put, ContainsKey, and Remove methods | O(log n) for Get, Put, ContainsKey, and Remove methods |
Iteration Order | Random | Sorted according to either Insertion Order or Access Order (as specified during construction) | Sorted according to either Natural Order of keys or a Comparator (as specified during construction) |
Null Keys | Allowed | Allowed | Not allowed if keys use Natural Ordering or a Comparator that does not support null keys. |
Interface | Map | Map | Map, SortedMap, and NavigableMap |
Synchronization | None, use Collections.synchronizedMap() | None, use Collections.synchronizedMap() | None, use Collections.synchronizedMap() |
Data Structure | List of buckets. If more than 8 entries exist in a bucket, Java 8 switches to a balanced tree from a linked list. | Doubly Linked List of Buckets | Red-Black Tree (a self-balancing binary search tree). Offers O(log n) for insert, delete, and search |
Applications | General-purpose, fast retrieval, non-synchronized. Use ConcurrentHashMap for concurrency. | Useful for LRU Cache or when insertion/access order matters | Algorithms requiring sorted or navigable features (e.g., range search, finding nearest values, etc.) |
Requirements for Keys | equals() and hashCode() must be implemented. | equals() and hashCode() must be implemented. | A Comparator must be supplied for key implementation, or natural ordering will be used |