Java Collections and Generics

java.util package
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Java Collection Framework Collection Framework Elements Collection Framework Interfaces

Comparable Interface Arrays Class Comparator Interface Collections Class Generics in Java Examples of Generic Errors Generic ArrayList

Collection Interface
Set Interface List Interface SortedSet Interface Map Interface SortedMap Interface Collection Framework Implementations ArrayList Class LinkedList Class HastSet Class TreeSet Class HashMap Class TreeMap Class

Generic TreeSet
Generic TreeMap Generic Iterator

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Java Collection Framework

A Collection (sometimes called a Container) is simply an object that groups multiple objects into a single group.

The java collection framework standardizes the way in which groups of objects are handled by your programs by providing a unified architecture called Collection Framework
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The Collection Framework is designed to meet several goals.

First, the framework provides high performance, fast and highly efficient way to work with groups of objects.

Second, the framework allows different types of collections to work in a similar manner with high 4 By Waqas degree of compatibility.

Collection Framework Elements

The Collection Framework consists of three elements: Interfaces, Implementation and Algorithms.

Interfaces
Abstract data types to manipulate collections independent of implementation Collection, Set, List, Map etc.
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details.

e.g.

Implementations
Concrete classes which are implementing Collection interfaces, used as reusable data structures. e.g. HashMap, ArrayList, TreeSet, HashSet etc.

Algorithms
Methods to perform operations on collections such as sorting, searching, iterations.
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Collection Framework Interfaces

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Collection

Map

Set

List

SortedMap

SortedSet

Collection Framework

Interfaces
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Collection Interface
A Collection interface is the super interface in the collection interfaces hierarchy. A collection represents a group of objects, known as its elements. Java does not provide any direct implementation of this interface. It provides implementations of more specific subinterfaces like Set and List.
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Set Interface
A Set is a Collection that does not contain duplicate elements, so its a collection of unique elements. If you add duplicate element in Set then add( ) method simply ignore the element and return false.
The elements in Set are not in order. The set interface does not define any additional methods, it inherits all the methods of Collection interface.
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List Interface
The List interface also extends Collection interface and declares the behavior of a collection that stores a sequence of objects in order. Elements can be inserted or retrieved by their position in the list, using a zero based index.

List can accept duplicate values.

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SortedSet Interface
The SortedSet interface extends Set and declares the behavior of a set in which objects are sorted in either their natural order or the order you specified in your custom object. SortedSet does not accept duplicate elements.

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Map Interface
A Map is an object that maps keys to values. A map cannot contain duplicate keys but can contain duplicate values.

Each key can map to at most one value.

We can retrieve value by using its key. Elements are not ordered By Waqas
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SortedMap Interface
The SortedMap interface extends Map and declares the behavior of a map in which objects are sorted by their keys in their natural order or custom order.

SortedMap elements can not contain duplicate keys.

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Difference between Interfaces

Interface Duplicates Order Sorting

Set
List Map

Not Allowed
Allowed Not Allowed for Keys

No Order
Order by Index No Order

No Sorting
No Sorting No Sorting

Sorted Set Sorted Map

Not Allowed Not Allowed

By Natural Order By Natural Order

By Natural Order By Natural Order

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Collection Framework Implementations

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Set

SortedSet

List

HashSet

TreeSet

ArrayList

LinkedList

Vector

Map

SortedMap

HashMap

TreeMap
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Collection Framework Implementations

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ArrayList Class
ArrayList class implements the List interface.
ArrayList is a dynamic array that can grow and shrink automatically as needed. Insertions and deletions are linear thats why these operations are slow in ArrayList Searching is fast in ArrayList because Java performs search randomly.
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LinkedList Class
LinkedList class implements the List interface.
Every element in LinkedList contains the data item and the pointer to the next node. Insertions and deletions are fast because they are linear in time. Searching is slow as java search LinkedList sequentially not randomly.
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HashSet Class
HastSet provides an implementation of Set

interface. Objects are not stored in order thats why searching objects is very fast.

HashSet does not support duplicate elements.

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TreeSet Class
TreeSet provides an implementation of SortedSet interface. Objects are stored in sorted, ascending order. Access and retrieval times is not as fast as HashSet. TreeSet is an excellent choice when you want to store large amounts of sorted data items.
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HashMap Class
HashMap provides an implementation of Map interface. Objects are stored as key-value pairs. null objects are supported by the HashMap. Objects are not stored in order.

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TreeMap Class
TreeMap class implements SortedMap interface. It provides an efficient means of storing key-value pairs in sorted order based on their keys.

As objects are sorted so random access or searching is little slower then HashMap.
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Comparable Interface
Many java collection framework classes such as TreeMap, TreeSet perform automatic sorting of objects when they added in the collection.
For sorting objects they must be comparable. Java provides an interface to make two objects comparable. Custom classes should implement comparable interface to provide logic for class specific sorting
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Comparable Interface
class Student implements Comparable { int id; public int compareTo(Object obj) { Student s2 = (Student) obj; Integer st1 = new Integer(this.id); Integer st2 = new Integer(s2.id); return st1.compareTo(st2); }
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Arrays Class
Arrays class contains manipulating arrays. various methods for

The two most common methods are sorting and searching. To sort array pass the array in the sort method. This method sort all elements in their natural order.
To search elements inside array use binarySearch 26 By Waqas method.

Comparator Interface
Comparator interface is used to create objects which can be passed to Arrays.sort or Collection.sort methods or collections such as TreeMap and TreeSet.
They are used to sort custom objects in collections. They are not needed for arrays and collections of primitive data types and for objects that have a natural sorting order such as String, Integer.
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Comparator Interface
class StudentComparator implements Comparator { public int compare(Object obj1, Object obj2) { Student s1 = (Student) obj1; Student s2 = (Student) obj2;

Integer st1 = new Integer(s1.id); Integer st2 = new Integer(s2.id);

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Comparator Interface
Student students[] = new Student[5];

students[0] students[1] students[2] students[3] students[4]

= = = = =

new new new new new

Student(5, Student(2, Student(1, Student(4, Student(3,

"Simon"); "James"); "Peter"); "David"); "John");

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Collections Class
Collections class contains various methods for manipulating collections.

sort( List ); binarySearch( List, Object ); min(List); max(List); replaceAll(List, Object, Object); reverse(List); shuffle(List); swap(List, int, int);
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Java Generics

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Example of Generic Errors

When we retrieve an element from a collection, we need to cast it to the right type otherwise compile time error occur.
ArrayList list = new ArrayList(); String input = London; list.add(input);

String output = list.get(0);

// Compiler Error

String output = (String) list.get(0); // Valid

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Example of Generic Errors

There is no way to ensure that we are casting to a correct type. Following code will compile but it will throw exception at runtime.
ArrayList list = new ArrayList(); String input = London; list.add(input);

Integer output = list.get(0); // Runtime Error

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Java Generics
Generics in Java allow us to create collections with a strong type. This means that if we are creating a collection to store Strings we will be forced to store and retrieve only Strings at compile time and runtime.

Overall result of using generics in java collections is improved reliability, readability and performance.
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Generic ArrayList
ArrayList<E> list = new ArrayList<E>();

ArrayList<String> list = new ArrayList<String>(); list.add(Simon); list.add(Peter); list.add(new Integer(2)); // Compiler Error

String s1 = list.get(0); String s2 = list.get(1); Integer I = list.get(0); // Compiler Error

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Generic TreeSet
TreeSet<E> set = new TreeSet<E>();

TreeSet<Integer> set = new TreeSet<Integer>();

set.add(new Integer(2)); set.add(new Integer(3));

set.add(Simon); // Compiler Error

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Generic TreeMap
TreeMap<K,V> map = new TreeMap<K,V>();

TreeMap<Integer, String> map = new TreeMap<Integer, String>();

map.put(new Integer(2), Simon); map.put(new Integer(3), Peter);

map.put(1, Simon); // Compiler Error map.put(1, new Integer(3)); // Compiler Error

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Generic Iterator
Iterator<E> it = set.iterator();

TreeSet<String> set = new TreeSet<String>(); set.add(Simon); set.add(Peter);

Iterator<String> it = set.iterator();
String s; while(it.hasNext()) { s = it.next(); }

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