Scribd
Upload
676 views1 page

Java Collection Matrix - Java Collection Matrix

The document provides information on common Java collection classes, including their key properties such as ordering, access methods, and thread safety. It describes common use cases for collections like ArrayList, HashMap, LinkedList and BlockingQueue. It also introduces specialized collections for sorted sets, caching, and producer-consumer scenarios.

Uploaded by

Satish Sarraf
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
676 views1 page

Java Collection Matrix - Java Collection Matrix

The document provides information on common Java collection classes, including their key properties such as ordering, access methods, and thread safety. It describes common use cases for collections like ArrayList, HashMap, LinkedList and BlockingQueue. It also introduces specialized collections for sorted sets, caching, and producer-consumer scenarios.

Uploaded by

Satish Sarraf
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 1

Ordering

Random
Access

Key-Value
Pairs

Allows
Duplicates

Allows Null
Values

Thread Safe

YES

YES

NO

YES

YES

NO

NO

NO

HashMap

NO

YES

YES

NO

YES

NO

NO

NO

Vector

YES

YES

NO

YES

YES

YES

NO

NO

Hashtable

NO

YES

YES

NO

NO

YES

NO

NO

ArrayList

Blocking
Upper
Operations
Bounds
Most Commonly Known Collections

Usage Scenarios
* 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)
* Default choice of Map implementation
* Majorly used for simple in-memory caching purpose.
* Historical implementation of List
* A good choice for thread-safe implementation
* Similar to HashMap
* Do not allow null values or keys
* Entire map is locked for thread safety

Most Talked About Collections


* To store bunch of things
* A very nice alternative for ArrayList if
** Do not want repetitions
** Ordering does not matter

HashSet

NO

YES

NO

NO

YES

NO

NO

NO

TreeSet

YES

YES

NO

NO

NO

NO

NO

NO

LinkedList

YES

NO

NO

YES

YES

NO

NO

NO

ArrayDeque

YES

YES

NO

YES

NO

NO

NO

NO

Stack

YES

NO

NO

YES

YES

YES

NO

NO

TreeMap

YES

YES

YES

NO

NO

NO
NO
NO
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

* To store bunch of things in sorted order


* A very nice alternative for ArrayList if
** Do not want repetitions
** Sorted order
* 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)
* 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
* Similar to a Vector
* Last-In-First-Out implementation
* A very nice alternative for HashMap if sorted keys are important

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

LinkedBlockingQueue

YES

NO

NO

YES

NO

YES

YES

YES

LinkedTransferQueue

YES

NO

NO

YES

NO

YES

YES

YES

PriorityBlockingQueue

YES

NO

NO

YES

NO

YES

LinkedBlockingDeque

YES

NO

NO

YES

NO

YES

SynchronousQueue

YES

NO

NO

YES

NO

YES

DelayQueue

YES

NO

NO

YES

NO

YES
Source:

* 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
* Best use for Producer - Consumer type of scenarios with
** Large capacity bound
** Unpredictable capacity
* Upper bound is optional
* Can be used in situations where the producers should wait for consumer
to receive elements. e.g. Message Passing

"* Best use for Producer - Consumer type of scenarios with


** Large capacity bound
** Unpredictable capacity
** Consumer needs elements in sorted order
* A Deque implementation of LinkedBlockingQueue
YES
YES
** Can add elements at both head and tail
* Both producer and consumer threads will have to wait for a handoff to
occur.
YES
NO
* If there is no consumer waiting. The element is not added to the
collection.
* Similar to a normal LinkedBlockingQueue
* Elements are implementations of Delayed interface
YES
NO
* Consumer will be able to get the element only when it's delay has
expired
http://www.janeve.me/articles/which-java-collection-to-use
YES

NO

You might also like