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Sson: Interfaces: Set Collection Sortedset Set Map Collection

The core collection interfaces in Java encapsulate different types of collections and allow them to be manipulated independently of their representation. The interfaces form a hierarchy with Collection at the top, and Set, List, Queue, Deque, Map, SortedSet, and SortedMap below. The interfaces are generic, specifying the type of elements contained in the collection. This allows type safety and reduces errors.

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49 views3 pages

Sson: Interfaces: Set Collection Sortedset Set Map Collection

The core collection interfaces in Java encapsulate different types of collections and allow them to be manipulated independently of their representation. The interfaces form a hierarchy with Collection at the top, and Set, List, Queue, Deque, Map, SortedSet, and SortedMap below. The interfaces are generic, specifying the type of elements contained in the collection. This allows type safety and reduces errors.

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anand
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© © All Rights Reserved
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sson: Interfaces

The core collection interfaces encapsulate different types of collections, which are shown in the figure
below. These interfaces allow collections to be manipulated independently of the details of their
representation. Core collection interfaces are the foundation of the Java Collections Framework. As you
can see in the following figure, the core collection interfaces form a hierarchy.

The core collection interfaces.


A Set is a special kind of Collection, a SortedSet is a special kind of Set, and so forth. Note also
that the hierarchy consists of two distinct trees a Map is not a true Collection.
Note that all the core collection interfaces are generic. For example, this is the declaration of
the Collectioninterface.

public interface Collection<E>...


The <E> syntax tells you that the interface is generic. When you declare a Collection instance you
can and should specify the type of object contained in the collection. Specifying the type allows the
compiler to verify (at compile-time) that the type of object you put into the collection is correct, thus
reducing errors at runtime. For information on generic types, see the Generics (Updated) lesson.
When you understand how to use these interfaces, you will know most of what there is to know about the
Java Collections Framework. This chapter discusses general guidelines for effective use of the interfaces,
including when to use which interface. You'll also learn programming idioms for each interface to help you
get the most out of it.
To keep the number of core collection interfaces manageable, the Java platform doesn't provide separate
interfaces for each variant of each collection type. (Such variants might include immutable, fixed-size, and
append-only.) Instead, the modification operations in each interface are designated optional a given
implementation may elect not to support all operations. If an unsupported operation is invoked, a collection
throws anUnsupportedOperationException. Implementations are responsible for documenting
which of the optional operations they support. All of the Java platform's general-purpose implementations
support all of the optional operations.
The following list describes the core collection interfaces:

Collection the root of the collection hierarchy. A collection represents a group of objects
known as itselements. The Collection interface is the least common denominator that all
collections implement and is used to pass collections around and to manipulate them when
maximum generality is desired. Some types of collections allow duplicate elements, and others do
not. Some are ordered and others are unordered. The Java platform doesn't provide any direct

implementations of this interface but provides implementations of more specific subinterfaces,


such as Set and List. Also see The Collection Interface section.

Set a collection that cannot contain duplicate elements. This interface models the
mathematical set abstraction and is used to represent sets, such as the cards comprising a poker
hand, the courses making up a student's schedule, or the processes running on a machine. See
also The Set Interface section.

List an ordered collection (sometimes called a sequence). Lists can contain duplicate
elements. The user of a List generally has precise control over where in the list each element is
inserted and can access elements by their integer index (position). If you've used Vector, you're
familiar with the general flavor ofList. Also see The List Interface section.

Queue a collection used to hold multiple elements prior to processing. Besides


basic Collectionoperations, a Queue provides additional insertion, extraction, and inspection
operations.
Queues typically, but do not necessarily, order elements in a FIFO (first-in, first-out) manner.
Among the exceptions are priority queues, which order elements according to a supplied
comparator or the elements' natural ordering. Whatever the ordering used, the head of the queue
is the element that would be removed by a call to remove or poll. In a FIFO queue, all new
elements are inserted at the tail of the queue. Other kinds of queues may use different placement
rules. Every Queue implementation must specify its ordering properties. Also see The Queue
Interface section.

Deque a collection used to hold multiple elements prior to processing. Besides


basic Collectionoperations, a Deque provides additional insertion, extraction, and inspection
operations.
Deques can be used both as FIFO (first-in, first-out) and LIFO (last-in, first-out). In a deque all new
elements can be inserted, retrieved and removed at both ends. Also see The Deque
Interface section.

Map an object that maps keys to values. A Map cannot contain duplicate keys; each key can
map to at most one value. If you've used Hashtable, you're already familiar with the basics
of Map. Also see The Map Interface section.

The last two core collection interfaces are merely sorted versions of Set and Map:

SortedSet a Set that maintains its elements in ascending order. Several additional
operations are provided to take advantage of the ordering. Sorted sets are used for naturally
ordered sets, such as word lists and membership rolls. Also see The SortedSet Interface section.

SortedMap a Map that maintains its mappings in ascending key order. This is the Map analog
ofSortedSet. Sorted maps are used for naturally ordered collections of key/value pairs, such as
dictionaries and telephone directories. Also see The SortedMap Interface section.

To understand how the sorted interfaces maintain the order of their elements, see the Object
Ordering section.
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