Java Collections

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 Readings and References
• References
» "Collections", Java tutorial
» http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/collections/index.html

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 Java 2 Collections
• A collection is an object that groups multiple
elements into a single unit
• Very useful
» store, retrieve and manipulate data
» transmit data from one method to another
» data structures and methods written by hotshots in the field
• Joshua Bloch, who also wrote the Collections tutorial

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 Collections Framework
• Unified architecture for representing and
manipulating collections.
• A collections framework contains three things
» Interfaces
» Implementations
» Algorithms

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Collections Framework Diagram

•Interfaces, Implementations, and Algorithms

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 Collection Interface
• Defines fundamental methods
» int size();
» boolean isEmpty();
» boolean contains(Object element);
» boolean add(Object element); // Optional
» boolean remove(Object element); // Optional
» Iterator iterator();

• These methods are enough to define the basic

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 Iterator Interface
• Defines three fundamental methods
» Object next()
» boolean hasNext()
» void remove()
• These three methods provide access to the
contents of the collection
• An Iterator knows position within collection
• Each call to next() “reads” an element from the
collection
» Then you can use it or remove it

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Iterator Position

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 Example - SimpleCollection
public class SimpleCollection {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Collection c;
c = new ArrayList();
System.out.println(c.getClass().getName());
for (int i=1; i <= 10; i++) {
c.add(i + " * " + i + " = "+i*i);
}
Iterator iter = c.iterator();
while (iter.hasNext())
System.out.println(iter.next());
}
}

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List Interface Context

Collection

List

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 List Interface
• The List interface adds the notion of order to a
collection
• The user of a list has control over where an element is
added in the collection
• Lists typically allow duplicate elements
• Provides a ListIterator to step through the elements in
the list.

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 ListIterator Interface
• Extends the Iterator interface
• Defines three fundamental methods
» void add(Object o) - before current position
» boolean hasPrevious()
» Object previous()
• The addition of these three methods defines the basic
behavior of an ordered list
• A ListIterator knows position within list

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Iterator Position - next(), previous()

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 ArrayList and LinkedList Context

Collection

List

ArrayList LinkedList

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 List Implementations
• ArrayList
» low cost random access
» high cost insert and delete
» array that resizes if need be
• LinkedList
» sequential access
» low cost insert and delete
» high cost random access

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 ArrayList overview
• Constant time positional access (it’s an array)
• One tuning parameter, the initial capacity

public ArrayList(int initialCapacity) {

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 ArrayList methods
• The indexed get and set methods of the List interface are
appropriate to use since ArrayLists are backed by an array
» Object get(int index)
» Object set(int index, Object element)
• Indexed add and remove are provided, but can be costly if
used frequently
» void add(int index, Object element)
» Object remove(int index)
• May want to resize in one shot if adding many elements
» void ensureCapacity(int minCapacity)

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 LinkedList overview
• Stores each element in a node
• Each node stores a link to the next and previous
nodes
• Insertion and removal are inexpensive
» just update the links in the surrounding nodes
• Linear traversal is inexpensive
• Random access is expensive
» Start from beginning or end and traverse each node while
counting

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 LinkedList entries
private static class Entry {
Object element;
Entry next;
Entry previous;

Entry(Object element, Entry next, Entry previous) {

private Entry header = new Entry(null, null, null);

public LinkedList() {
header.next = header.previous = header;
}
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 LinkedList methods
• The list is sequential, so access it that way
» ListIterator listIterator()
• ListIterator knows about position
» use add() from ListIterator to add at a position
» use remove() from ListIterator to remove at a position
• LinkedList knows a few things too
» void addFirst(Object o), void addLast(Object o)
» Object getFirst(), Object getLast()
» Object removeFirst(), Object removeLast()

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Set Interface Context

Collection

Set

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 Set Interface
• Same methods as Collection
» different contract - no duplicate entries
• Defines two fundamental methods
» boolean add(Object o) - reject duplicates
» Iterator iterator()
• Provides an Iterator to step through the elements
in the Set
» No guaranteed order in the basic Set interface
» There is a SortedSet interface that extends Set

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HashSet and TreeSet Context

Collection

Set

HashSet TreeSet

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 HashSet
• Find and add elements very quickly
» uses hashing implementation in HashMap
• Hashing uses an array of linked lists
» The hashCode() is used to index into the array
» Then equals() is used to determine if element is in the
(short) list of elements at that index
• No order imposed on elements
• The hashCode() method and the equals() method
must be compatible
» if two objects are equal, they must have the same
hashCode() value
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 TreeSet
• Elements can be inserted in any order
• The TreeSet stores them in order
» Red-Black Trees out of Cormen-Leiserson-Rivest
• An iterator always presents them in order
• Default order is defined by natural order
» objects implement the Comparable interface
» TreeSet uses compareTo(Object o) to sort
• Can use a different Comparator
» provide Comparator to the TreeSet constructor

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Map Interface Context

Map

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 Map Interface
• Stores key/value pairs
• Maps from the key to the value
• Keys are unique
» a single key only appears once in the Map
» a key can map to only one value
• Values do not have to be unique

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 Map methods
Object put(Object key, Object value)
Object get(Object key)
Object remove(Object key)
boolean containsKey(Object key)
boolean containsValue(Object value)
int size()
boolean isEmpty()

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 Map views
• A means of iterating over the keys and values in a Map
• Set keySet()
» returns the Set of keys contained in the Map
• Collection values()
» returns the Collection of values contained in the Map.
This Collection is not a Set, as multiple keys can map
to the same value.
• Set entrySet()
» returns the Set of key-value pairs contained in the Map.
The Map interface provides a small nested interface
called Map.Entry that is the type of the elements in this
Set.
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HashMap and TreeMap Context

Map

HashMap TreeMap

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 HashMap and TreeMap
• HashMap
» The keys are a set - unique, unordered
» Fast

• TreeMap
» The keys are a set - unique, ordered
» Same options for ordering as a TreeSet
• Natural order (Comparable, compareTo(Object))
• Special order (Comparator, compare(Object, Object))
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 Bulk Operations
• In addition to the basic operations, a Collection may
provide “bulk” operations
boolean containsAll(Collection c);
boolean addAll(Collection c); // Optional
boolean removeAll(Collection c); // Optional
boolean retainAll(Collection c); // Optional
void clear(); // Optional
Object[] toArray();
Object[] toArray(Object a[]);

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Utilities Context

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 Utilities
• The Collections class provides a number of static
methods for fundamental algorithms
• Most operate on Lists, some on all Collections
» Sort, Search, Shuffle
» Reverse, fill, copy
» Min, max
• Wrappers
» synchronized Collections, Lists, Sets, etc
» unmodifiable Collections, Lists, Sets, etc

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 Legacy classes
• Still available
• Don’t use for new development
» unless you have to, eg, J2ME, J2EE in some cases
• Retrofitted into Collections framework
• Hashtable
» use HashMap
• Enumeration
» use Collections and Iterators
» if needed, can get an Enumeration with
Collections.enumeration(Collection c)
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 More Legacy classes
• Vector
» use ArrayList
• Stack
» use LinkedList
• BitSet
» use ArrayList of boolean, unless you can’t stand the
thought of the wasted space
• Properties
» legacies are sometimes hard to walk away from …
» see next few pages
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 Properties class
• Located in java.util package
• Special case of Hashtable
» Keys and values are Strings
» Tables can be saved to/loaded from file

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 System properties
• Java VM maintains set of properties that
define system environment
» Set when VM is initialized
» Includes information about current user, VM
version, Java environment, and OS configuration
Properties prop = System.getProperties();
Enumeration e = prop.propertyNames();
while (e.hasMoreElements()) {
String key = (String) e.nextElement();
System.out.println(key + " value is " +
prop.getProperty(key));
}
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