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Java Collection Matrix

There are several commonly used Java collection classes for different purposes. ArrayList is the default list implementation for storing elements where insertion order and duplicates matter. HashMap is the default map and used for simple caching where keys must be unique. HashSet provides a set that does not allow duplicates or ordering. BlockingQueue implementations like ArrayBlockingQueue and LinkedBlockingQueue support producer-consumer scenarios. Thread-safe variants like ConcurrentHashMap provide concurrent access without external synchronization.

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84 views1 page

Java Collection Matrix

There are several commonly used Java collection classes for different purposes. ArrayList is the default list implementation for storing elements where insertion order and duplicates matter. HashMap is the default map and used for simple caching where keys must be unique. HashSet provides a set that does not allow duplicates or ordering. BlockingQueue implementations like ArrayBlockingQueue and LinkedBlockingQueue support producer-consumer scenarios. Thread-safe variants like ConcurrentHashMap provide concurrent access without external synchronization.

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Jessica Harvey
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Most Commonly Known Collections

ArrayList YES YES NO YES YES NO NO NO


* Default choice of List implementation
* To store a bunch of things
* Repetitions matters
* Insertion order matters
* Best implementation in case of huge lists which are read intensive
(elements are accessed more frequently than inserted deleted)
HashMap NO YES YES NO YES NO NO NO
* Default choice of Map implementation
* Majorly used for simple in-memory caching purpose.
Vector YES YES NO YES YES YES NO NO
* Historical implementation of List
* A good choice for thread-safe implementation
Hashtable NO YES YES NO NO YES NO NO
* Similar to HashMap
* Do not allow null values or keys
* Entire map is locked for thread safety
Most Talked About Collections
HashSet NO YES NO NO YES NO NO NO
* To store bunch of things
* A very nice alternative for ArrayList if
** Do not want repetitions
** Ordering does not matter
TreeSet YES YES NO NO NO NO NO NO
* To store bunch of things in sorted order
* A very nice alternative for ArrayList if
** Do not want repetitions
** Sorted order
LinkedList YES NO NO YES YES NO NO NO
* Sequential Access
* Faster adding and deleting of elements
* Slightly more memory than ArrayList
* Add/Remove elements from both ends of the queue
* Best alternative in case of huge lists which are more write intensive
(elements added / deleted are more frequent than reading elements)
ArrayDeque YES YES NO YES NO NO NO NO
* Random Access
* Faster searching and retrieval of elements
* Add/Remove elements from both ends of the queue
* Best alternative in case of huge lists which are more read intensive
Stack YES NO NO YES YES YES NO NO
* Similar to a Vector
* Last-In-First-Out implementation
TreeMap YES YES YES NO NO NO NO NO * A very nice alternative for HashMap if sorted keys are important
Special Purpose Collections
WeakHashMap NO YES YES NO YES NO NO NO
* The keys that are not referenced will automatically become eligible for
garbage collection
* Usually used for advanced caching techniques to store huge data and
want to conserve memory
Arrays YES YES NO YES YES NO NO YES
* A Utility class provided to manipulate arrays
** Searching
** Sorting
** Converting to other Collection types such as a List
Properties NO YES YES NO NO YES NO NO
* Properties are exactly same as the Hashtable
* Keys and Values are String
* Can be loaded from a input stream
* Usually used to store application properties and configurations
Thread Safe Collections
CopyOnWriteArrayList YES YES NO YES YES YES NO NO
* A thread safe variant of ArrayList
* Best use for
** Small lists which are read intensive
** requires thread-safety
ConcurrentHashMap NO YES YES NO NO YES NO NO
* A thread safe variant of Hashtable
* Best use for
** requires thread-safety
** Better performance at high load due to a better locking mechanism
ConcurrentSkipListMap YES YES YES NO NO YES NO NO
* A thread safe variant of TreeMap
* Best use for
** requires thread-safety
ConcurrentSkipListSet YES NO NO NO NO YES NO NO
* A thread safe variant of TreeSet
* Best use for
** Do not want repetitions
** Sorted order
** Requires thread-safety
CopyOnWriteArraySet YES YES NO NO YES YES NO NO
* A thread-safe implementation of a Set
* Best use for
** Small lists which are read intensive
** requires thread-safety
** Do not want repetitions
ConcurrentLinkedQueue YES NO NO YES NO YES NO NO
* A thread-safe variant of PriorityQueue
* Best use for
** Small lists
** No random access
** requires thread-safety
ConcurrentLinkedDeque YES NO NO YES NO YES NO NO
"* A thread-safe variant of LinkedList
* Best use for
** Small lists
** No random access
** Insertions, retrieval on both sides of the queue
** requires thread-safety"
Blocking Collections
ArrayBlockingQueue YES NO NO YES NO YES YES YES
* Best use for Producer - Consumer type of scenarios with
** Lower capacity bound
** Predictable capacity
* Has a bounded buffer. Space would be allocated during object creation
LinkedBlockingQueue YES NO NO YES NO YES YES YES
* Best use for Producer - Consumer type of scenarios with
** Large capacity bound
** Unpredictable capacity
* Upper bound is optional
LinkedTransferQueue YES NO NO YES NO YES YES YES
* Can be used in situations where the producers should wait for
consumer to receive elements. e.g. Message Passing
PriorityBlockingQueue YES NO NO YES NO YES YES NO
"* Best use for Producer - Consumer type of scenarios with
** Large capacity bound
** Unpredictable capacity
** Consumer needs elements in sorted order
LinkedBlockingDeque YES NO NO YES NO YES YES YES
* A Deque implementation of LinkedBlockingQueue
** Can add elements at both head and tail
SynchronousQueue YES NO NO YES NO YES YES NO
* Both producer and consumer threads will have to wait for a handoff to
occur.
* If there is no consumer waiting. The element is not added to the
collection.
DelayQueue YES NO NO YES NO YES YES NO
* Similar to a normal LinkedBlockingQueue
* Elements are implementations of Delayed interface
* Consumer will be able to get the element only when it's delay has
expired
Source: http://www.janeve.me/articles/which-java-collection-to-use
Ordering
Random
Access
Key-Value
Pairs
Allows
Duplicates
Allows Null
Values
Thread Safe
Blocking
Operations
Upper
Bounds Usage Scenarios

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