JDK 1.2 introduces a new framework for collections of objects, called the Java Collections Framework.
What are Collections?
A collection (sometimes called a container) is simply an object that groups multiple elements into a single unit. Collections are used to store, retrieve, manipulate, and communicate aggregate data.Why do we need Collections when we have Array?
- Arrays are immutable, once defined you cannot increase the size of an Array.
- Array is not really thread-safe.
What is the difference between Collection and Collections?
Both are part of the java collection framework, but both serve a different purpose. The collection is the top-level interface of the java collection framework whereas Collections is a utility class.The collection interface is a member of java.util package and List, Set, and Queue are the main sub interfaces of this interface. JDK doesn’t provide any direct implementations of this interface. But, JDK provides direct implementations of its sub-interfaces.
ArrayList, Vector, HashSet, LinkedHashSet, PriorityQueue are some indirect implementations of Collection interface. Map interface, which is also a part of java collection framework, doesn’t inherit from Collection interface.
Collections is an utility class in java.util package. It consists of only static methods which are used to operate on objects of type Collection. e.g
HashSet class declaration:
public class HashSet < E > extends AbstractSet implements Set < E > , Cloneable, Serializable
Constructors of HashSet:
Every constructor of HashSet class internally creates one HashMap object.
private transient HashMap map;
public HashSet()
{
map = new HashMap<>();
}
public HashSet(Collection c)
{
map = new HashMap<>(Math.max((int) (c.size()/.75f) + 1, 16));
addAll(c);
}
public HashSet(int initialCapacity, float loadFactor)
{
map = new HashMap<>(initialCapacity, loadFactor);
}
public HashSet(int initialCapacity)
{
map = new HashMap<>(initialCapacity);
}
Whenever we insert an element into HashSet using add() method, it actually creates an entry in the internally backing HashMap object with an element you have specified as its key and constant called “PRESENT” as its value. e.g:
private static final Object PRESENT = new Object();
add() method of HashSet class internally calls put() method of backing HashMap object by passing the element you have specified as a key and constant “PRESENT” as its value. e.g:
public boolean add(E e)
{
return map.put(e, PRESENT)==null;
}
remove() method also works in the same manner.
public boolean remove(Object o)
{
return map.remove(o)==PRESENT;
}
public class LinkedHashSet < E > extends HashSet < E > implements Set < E > , Cloneable, Serializable
Constructors of Java LinkedHashSet class
public class TreeSet < E > extends AbstractSet < E > implements NavigableSet < E > , Cloneable, Serializable
Constructors of Java TreeSet class
a. HashSet stores the object in random order, there is no guarantee that the element we inserted first in the HashSet will be printed first in the output. While elements are sorted according to the natural ordering of their elements in TreeSet. If the objects can not be sorted in the natural order then use compareTo() method to sort the elements of TreeSet object.
b. HashSet can store null objects while TreeSet can not store null objects. If one tries to store a null object in the TreeSet object, it will throw Null Pointer Exception.
c. HashSet takes constant time performance for the basic operations like add, remove contains, and size. While TreeSet guarantees log(n) time cost for the basic operations(add,remove,contains).
d. HashSet is much faster than TreeSet, as the performance time of HashSet is constant against the log time of TreeSet for most operations (add, remove,contains, and size). Iteration performance of HashSet mainly depends on the load factor and initial capacity parameters.
e. HashSet uses equals() method for comparison in java while TreeSet uses compareTo() method for maintaining ordering.
BigDecimal b1= new BigDecimal("1.0");
BigDecimal b2= new BigDecimal("1.00");
System.out.println(b1.compareTo(b2)); //0
System.out.println(b1.equals(b2)); //false
equals() of BigDecimal will return false, because their precision is different, whereas compareTo() will return 0 because the "value" is the same.
Now lets do the same thing by using Double:
Double d1=new Double(1.0);
Double d2=new Double(1.00);
System.out.println(d1.compareTo(d2)); //0
System.out.println(d1.equals(d2)); //true
In above case, compareTo will return 0 and equals will return true.
So, if you store these two BigDecimal in HashSet you will end up with duplicates (violation of Set Contract), while if you store them in TreeSet you will end up with just 1 element because HashSet uses equals() to check duplicates while TreeSet uses compareTo() to check duplicates.
public class ArrayList < E > extends AbstractList < E > implements List < E > , RandomAccess, Cloneable, Serializable
Constructors of Java ArrayList
b. ArrayList can not contain primitive data types (like int, float, double) it can only contain Objects, while Array can contain both primitive data types as well as objects. One gets a misconception that we can store primitives(int, float, double) in ArrayList, but it is not true. Let us take an example:
ArrayList arraylistobject = new ArrayList();
arraylistobject.add(10); // try to add primitive 10
JVM through Autoboxing (converting primitives to equivalent objects internally) ensures that only objects are added to the ArrayList object. Thus, the above step internally works like this :
arraylistobject.add(new Integer(10)); //Converted int primitive to Integer object and added to arraylistobject
c. Length of the ArrayList is provided by the size() method while Each array object has the length variable which returns the length of the array.
e.g :
Integer arrayobject[] = new Integer[3];
arraylength= arrayobject.length; //uses arrayobject length variable
ArrayList arraylistobject = new ArrayList();
arraylistobject.add(10);
arraylistobject.size();//uses arraylistobject size method
d. Array can be multi-dimensional, while ArrayList is always single-dimensional.
e. In Java, one can ensure Type Safety through Generics. while Array is a homogeneous data structure, thus it will contain objects of a specific class or primitives of a specific data type. In an array, if one tries to store the different data type other than the specified while creating the array object, ArrayStoreException is thrown. e.g :
String temp[] = new String[2]; // creates a string array of size 2
temp[0] = new Integer(12); // throws ArrayStoreException, trying to add Integer object in String[]
f. We can insert elements into the ArrayList object using the add() method while in the array we insert elements using the assignment operator.
e.g :
Integer addarrayobject[] = new Integer[5];
addarrayobject[0]= new Integer(1);
b. Duplicate elements: Both array and ArrayList can contain duplicate elements.
c. Null Values: Both can store null values and uses the index to refer to their elements.
d. Unordered: Both do not guarantee ordered elements.
e.g:
String[] meArray = {"I" , "Me" , "Myself"};
List meList = Arrays.asList(meArray);
If you want to add a huge number of elements to an already full ArrayList, in such case ArrayList has to be resized several times, which would result in poor performance. For such scenarios, you can use, ensureCapacity() method of Java.util.ArrayList class. This method increases the size of the ArrayList by a specified capacity.
ensureCapacity(int minCapacity), takes minimum capacity as input parameter and does not return any value, and does not throw any exception.
ArrayList names=new ArrayList<>();
names.add("Himaanshu Shuklaa");
names.add("John Mathew");
names.add("Emmy Watson");
names.add(n, "Rita Anderson");
System.out.println(names);
}
Ans: n should be less than or equal to the size of ArrayList while doing 'names.add(n, "Rita Anderson")'
List < String > names=new ArrayList < String > ();
names.add(null);
names.add("Himanshu Shukla");
names.add("Sana Rafat");
names.add(null);
names.add("Brandon");
names.add(null);
a). We can remove null's by using while loop.
while (names.remove(null));
b). We can do the same thing by using removeAll method.
names.removeAll(Collections.singleton(null));
c). By using Java 8's Lambdas to filter the List. We can use either parallel or serial stream:
List < String > namesWithoutNulls = names.parallelStream()
.filter(Objects::nonNull).collect(Collectors.toList());
List < Integer > duplicateEmpIds=new ArrayList < Integer > ();
duplicateEmpIds.add(1);
duplicateEmpIds.add(2);
duplicateEmpIds.add(1);
duplicateEmpIds.add(3);
duplicateEmpIds.add(3);
duplicateEmpIds.add(3);
a). We can easily remove the duplicates using the set
List < Integer > uniqueEmpIds = new ArrayList < > (new HashSet(duplicateEmpIds));
b). We can also remove duplicates from a List using Java 8 Lambdas and distinct() method of Streams
List < Integer > uniqueEmpIds = duplicateEmpIds.stream()
.distinct().collect(Collectors.toList());
List < String > namesList = Arrays.asList(names);
namesList.add("Margarita");
This will throw an UnsupportedOperationException. asList will return a fixed-size List as of the size of a given array. It's an ArrayList, from java.util.Arrays.
Since the returned List is a fixed-size list, we can’t add/remove elements. An attempt to add more elements would cause UnsupportedOperationException. This Exception occurred because the returned object doesn't implement the add() operation since it isn't the same as java.util.ArrayList.
List < String > names=new ArrayList < String > ();
names.add("Himanshu Shukla");
names.add("Sana Rafat");
names.add("Andrew Hudson");
a). Copy by constructor: The simplest way to copy a List is by using the constructor that takes a collection as its argument:
List < String > copiednames=new ArrayList < String > (names);
Let's say the names List contains the list of 'Names' class. In this came if we create a copied name, and someone makes changes in any element of the 'names' list it would affect the corresponding element of 'copiednames' list. This is because of the fact that we're copying references here and not cloning the objects, any change made in one element will affect both lists. That's why using the constructor is good to copy only the immutable objects.
If a thread is modifying the list while another thread is trying to copy it, ConcurrentAccessException will be thrown. To fix this issue, either uses a designed concurrent access collection or lock the collection appropriately to iterate over it.
For concurrent access collection, CopyOnWhiteArrayList can be used, in which all mutative operations are implemented by making a fresh copy of the underlying array. To lock the Collection, it's possible to use a lock primitive to serialize read/write access, such as ReentrantReadWriteLock.
b). AddAll() method:
List < String > copiednames = new ArrayList < > ();
copiednames.addAll(names);
c). Collections.copy: Collections class has a copy method which needs a source and a destination list, it will maintain the index of each copied element in the destination list such as the original.
In the below example all the previous elements in the destEmpIdList were overwritten because both lists have the same size. After copy destEmpIdList will contain 1,2,3:
List < Integer > sourceEmpIdList = Arrays.asList(1,2,3);
List < Integer > destEmpIdList = Arrays.asList(4,5,6);
Collections.copy(destEmpIdList, sourceEmpIdList);
In the below example, the destination list size is larger than the source. In this case, three first items were overwritten while the rest of the elements in the list are conserved. After copy destEmpIdList will contain 1,2,3,7,8,9:
List < Integer > sourceEmpIdList = Arrays.asList(1,2,3);
List < Integer > destEmpIdList = Arrays.asList(4,5,6,7,8,9);
Collections.copy(destEmpIdList, sourceEmpIdList);
d). By using Java 8: We can use Streams to copy the list. We can even filter the source list while doing the copy operation.
List < Integer > sourceEmpIdList = Arrays.asList(1,2,3);
List < Integer > destEmpIdList = sourceEmpIdList.stream()
.collect(Collectors.toList());
Which collection classes are synchronized or thread-safe?
Stack, Properties, Vector and Hashtable.
What is the difference between Queue and Stack?
Queue is a data structure which is based on FIFO(first in first out) property. Stack is a data structure which is based on LIFO (last in first out) property.
What is an Iterator?
Iterator is an interface, which found in java.util package and provides methods to iterate over any Collection.
What is the difference between Iterator and Enumeration?
It follows iterator design pattern. Iterator design pattern provides us to navigate through the collection of objects by using a common interface without letting us know about the underlying implementation.
Enumeration is also an example of Iterator design pattern.
If an ArrayList has to be iterated to read data only, what are the possible ways and which is the fastest?
It can be done in two ways, using for loop or using iterator of ArrayList. The first option is faster than using iterator. Because value stored in arraylist is indexed access. So while accessing the value is accessed directly as per the index.
If accessing through iterator is slow then why do we need it and when to use it.
For loop does not allow the updation in the array(add or remove operation) inside the loop whereas Iterator does. Also Iterator can be used where there is no clue what type of collections will be used because all collections have iterator.
Why is it preferred to declare: List < String > list = new ArrayList < String > (); instead of ArrayList < String > = new ArrayList < String > ();
using Collections.sort(list, String.CASE_INSENSITIVE_ORDER);
How to make a List (ArrayList,Vector,LinkedList) read only or Immutable?
Where as, fail-safe iterator traverse over a copy or view of original collection.
Most of the Collection classes from Java 1.4 e.g. ArrayList, HashMap, HashSet has fail-fast iterators.
The other type of iterator was introduced in Java 1.5 when concurrent collection classes e.g. ConcurrentHashMap, CopyOnWriteArrayList and CopyOnWriteArraySet was introduced. These iterator uses a view of original collection for doing iteration and that's why they doesn't throw ConcurrentModificationException even when original collection was modified after iteration has begun. This means you could iterate and work with stale value, but this is the cost you need to pay for fail-safe iterator.
What is the difference between the remove() method of Collection and remove() method of Iterator?
Collection interface defines remove(Object obj) method to remove objects from Collection. List interface adds another method remove(int index), which is used to remove object at specific index. You can use any of these method to remove an entry from Collection, while not iterating.
But, you should not use Collection's or List's remove() method during iteration then your code will throw ConcurrentModificationException. Instead use Iterator's remove() method, which removes current element from Iterator's perspective.
How to reverse the List in Collections?
Collections.reverse(listobject);
What is the difference between peek(), poll() and remove() method of the Queue interface?Both poll() and remove() method is used to remove head object of the Queue. The main difference lies when the Queue is empty(), then poll() method will return null while remove() method will throw NoSuchElementException. peek() method retrieves but does not remove the head of the Queue. If queue is empty then peek() method also returns null.
What is the difference between Synchronized Collection and Concurrent Collection?
Though all three collection classes (ConcurrentHashMap, Hashtable, Synchronized Map) are thread-safe and can be used in multi-threaded, concurrent Java application, there is a significant difference between them.
All methods of Hashtable and Synchronized Map are synchronized which makes them quite slow due to contention if a number of thread increases.
ConcurrentHashMap is scalable as it uses stripped locking technique and is specially designed for concurrent use i.e. more than one thread. By default it simultaneously allows 16 threads to read and write from Map without any external synchronization. Unlike Hashtable and Synchronized Map, it never locks whole Map, instead, it divides the map into segments and locking is done on those. Though it performs better if a number of reader threads are greater than the number of writer threads.
What is a Map?
Its an interface which maps unique keys to values. A key is an object that you use to retrieve a value at a later date.
Map interface is not compatible with the Collection interface. Since Map requires key as well as value, e.g if we want to add key-value pair then we will use put(Object key , Object value). So there are two parameters required to add element to the HashMap object. In Collection interface add(Object o) has only one parameter. The other reason is, Map supports valueSet, keySet as well as other appropriate methods which have just different views from the Collection interface.
What is a Hashtable?
Java Hashtable class implements Map, which maps keys to values. Here is the declaration for java.util.Hashtable class.
public class Hashtable < K,V > extends Dictionary implements Map < K,V >, Cloneable, Serializable
where, K is the type of keys maintained by this map and V is the type of mapped values.
The important points about Java Hashtable class are:
As a general rule, the default load factor (.75) offers a good tradeoff between time and space costs. Higher values decrease the space overhead but increase the lookup cost (reflected in most of the operations of the HashMap class, including get and put). The expected number of entries in the map and its load factor should be taken into account when setting its initial capacity, so as to minimize the number of rehash operations. If the initial capacity is greater than the maximum number of entries divided by the load factor, no rehash operations will ever occur.
A hash table is a collection of items which are stored in such a way as to make it easy to find them later. Each position of the hash table, often called a slot, can hold an item and is named by an integer value starting at 0.
Initially, the hash table contains no items so every slot is empty.
hashCode() is a hash function which is present in Object class and returns an integer value (known as Hash value). This function provides the mapping between an item and the slot where that item belongs in the hash table.
hash = hashfunc(key)
index = hash % array_size
The hash function will take any item in the collection and return an integer in the range of slot names, between 0 and m-1.
Once the hash values have been computed, we can insert each item into the hash table at the designated position. When we want to search for an item, we simply use the hash function to compute the slot name for the item and then check the hash table to see if it is present. This searching operation is O(1), since a constant amount of time is required to compute the hash value and then index the hash table at that location. If everything is where it should be, we have found a constant time search algorithm.
Collision (it may also be called a “clash”), when two or more items would need to be in the same slot, which will create a problem for the hashing technique.
How to write a perfect hash function?
A hash function that maps each item into a unique slot is referred to as a perfect hash function. However, irrespective of how good a hash function is, collisions are bound to occur. Nevertheless, we do not need the hash function to be perfect to still gain performance efficiency.
One way to always have a perfect hash function is to increase the size of the hash table so that each possible value in the item range can be accommodated. This guarantees that each item will have a unique slot. Although this is practical for small numbers of items, it is not feasible when the number of possible items is large.
As writing a perfect hash function is not alays possible, our goal should be to create a hash function that minimizes the number of collisions, is easy to compute, and evenly distributes the items in the hash table. There are a number of common ways to extend the simple remainder method. Here a few ways, we can write hash function:
#folding method : In this method we divide the item (key) into equal-size pieces (the last piece may not be of equal size). These pieces are then added together to give the resulting hash value. For example, if our item was the phone number 9920600280, we would take the digits and divide them into groups of 2 (99, 20, 60, 02, 80). After the addition, 99+20+60+02+80=195. If we assume our hash table has 11 slots, then we need to perform the extra step of dividing by 11 and keeping the remainder. In this case 195 % 11 is 8, so the phone number 9920600280 hashes to slot 8.
#mid-square method: In this method, we first square the item, and then extract some portion of the resulting digits. For example, if the item were 44, we would first compute the square of 44=1936. By extracting the middle two digits, 93, and performing the remainder step, we get 5 (93 % 11). Table 5 shows items under both the remainder method and the mid-square method.
How Hashmap works in Java
HashMap in Java works on hashing principle. It is a data structure which allows us to store object and retrieve it in constant time O(1) provided we know the key.
To understand Hashing, we first need to understand what is Hash Function, Hash Value and Bucket?
When we call put method, hashcode() method of the key object is called so that hash function of the map can find a bucket location to store value object, which is actually an index of the internal array, known as the table.
HashMap internally stores mapping in the form of Map.Entry object which contains both key and value object. (Entry object stores in the bucket like this (hash,key,value,bucketindex)
When you want to retrieve the object, you call the get() method and again pass the key object. This time again key object generate same hash code (it's mandatory for it to do so to retrieve the object and that's why HashMap keys are immutable e.g. String) and we end up at same bucket location. If there is only one object then it is returned and that's your value object which you have stored earlier. Things get little tricky when collisions occur.
Since the internal array of HashMap is of fixed size, and if you keep storing objects, at some point of time hash function will return same bucket location for two different keys, this is called collision in HashMap. (two unequal objects in Java can have same hashcode). In this case, a linked list is formed at that bucket location and a new entry is stored as next node.
If we try to retrieve an object from this linked list, we need an extra check to search correct value, this is done by equals() method. Since each node contains an entry, HashMap keeps comparing entry's key object with the passed key using equals() and when it return true, Map returns the corresponding value.
Which methods you need to override to use any object as key in HashMap?
equals() and hashCode()
What happens On HashMap in Java if the size of the HashMap exceeds a given threshold defined by load factor?
If the size of the Map exceeds a given threshold defined by load-factor e.g. if the load factor is .75 it will act to re-size the map once it filled 75%. Similar to other collection classes like ArrayList, Java HashMap re-size itself by creating a new bucket array of size twice of the previous size of HashMap and then start putting every old element into that new bucket array. This process is called rehashing because it also applies the hash function to find new bucket location.
Does resizing of HashMap in Java creates any problem?
Yes there is potential race condition exists while resizing HashMap in Java, if two thread at the same time found that now HashMap needs resizing and they both try to resizing. On the process of resizing of HashMap, the element in the bucket which is stored in linked list get reversed in order during their migration to new bucket because Java HashMap doesn't append the new element at tail instead it append new element at the head to avoid tail traversing. If race condition happens then you will end up with an infinite loop.
What is the difference between HashMap and Hashtable?
String is most frequently used key as well because String is immutable and final, and overrides equals and hashcode() method. Other wrapper class also shares similar property. Immutability is required, in order to prevent changes on fields used to calculate hashCode() because if key object returns different hashCode during insertion and retrieval than it won't be possible to get an object from HashMap.
Immutability is best as it offers other advantages as well like thread-safety, if you can keep your hashCode same by only making certain fields final, then you go for that as well. Since equals() and hashCode() method is used during retrieval of value object from HashMap, it's important that key object correctly override these methods and follow contact. If unequal object returns different hashcode than chances of collision will be less which subsequently improve the performance of HashMap.
Can we use any custom object as a key in HashMap?
Yes we can use any Object as key in Java HashMap provided it follows equals and hashCode contract and its hashCode should not vary once the object is inserted into Map. If the custom object is Immutable than this will be already taken care because you can not change it once created.
ALSO READ: HashCode & equals() Interview Questions in Java
How null key is handled in HashMap? Since equals() and hashCode() are used to store and retrieve values, how does it work in case of the null key?
Null keys always map to hash 0, thus index 0.
The null key is handled specially in HashMap, there are two separate methods for that putForNullKey(V value) and getForNullKey(). Later is offloaded version of get() to look up null keys. Null keys always map to index 0.
This null case is split out into separate methods for the sake of performance in the two most commonly used operations (get and put), but incorporated with conditionals in others. In short, equals() and hashcode() method are not used in case of null keys in HashMap.
private V getForNullKey() {
if (size == 0) {
return null;
}
for (Entry e = table[0]; e != null; e = e.next) {
if (e.key == null)
return e.value;
}
return null;
}
How Remove method in HashMap works internally in Java?
To understand how remove method of HashMap works, we first need to understand the Entry object. Map.Entry is the static nested class that stores the key/value pair that forms one element of HashMap. Entry object stores in the bucket in the following way (hash,key,value,bucketindex).
That means we need hashvalue and bucketindex besides key to get access to the desired Entry object in HashMap.
HashMap implementation of the remove(key) method in Java Apis that is rt.jar :
public class HashMap< K,V >
extends AbstractMap< K,V >
implements Map< K,V >, Cloneable, java.io.Serializable
{
public V remove (Object key){
Entry< K,V > e = removeEntryForKey(key);
return (e==null ? null : e.value);
}
}
remove(key) method calls removeEntryForKey(key) method internally, which calculate the final hashValue of the key object, and then use that hashValue in the indexFor(int,int) method to find the first entry object in the appropriate bucket.
Since bucket(table) is a LinkedList effectively, we start traversing from the first entry object which we got by using indexFor(int,int) method in the bucket. For each entry object in the bucket we compare whether hashValue and the key is equal to the calculated hashValue in the first step and the key passed as a parameter in the remove(key) method.
If desired Entry object is found, then we removed that single entry object from the LinkedList. Removing a single Entry object from the LinkedList is implemented just like removing a single object from the LinkedList.
Why String is popular HashMap key in Java?
Since String is immutable, its hashcode is cached at the time of creation and it doesn’t need to be calculated again. This makes it a great candidate for key in a Map and it’s processing is fast than other HashMap key objects. This is why String is mostly used Object as HashMap keys.
What is a LinkedHashMap? LinkedHashMap class is a Linked list implementation of the Map interface, with predictable iteration order. It inherits HashMap class and implements the Map interface. The important points about Java HashMap class are:
public class LinkedHashMap < K,V > extends HashMap < K,V > implements Map < K,V >
Constructors of Java LinkedHashMap class
here is TreeMap class declaration, where, K is the type of keys maintained by this map and V is the type of mapped values :
public class TreeMap < K,V > extends AbstractMap < K,V > implements NavigableMap < K,V > , Cloneable, Serializable
Constructors of Java TreeMap class
Collections is an utility class in java.util package. It consists of only static methods which are used to operate on objects of type Collection. e.g
- Collections.max() : - This method returns maximum element in the specified collection.
- Collections.min() : - This method returns minimum element in the given collection.
- Collections.sort() : - This method sorts the specified collection.
- Collections.shuffle() : - This method randomly shuffles the elements in the specified collection.
- Collections.synchronizedCollection() : - This method returns synchronized collection backed by the specified collection.
- Collections.binarySearch() : - This method searches the specified collection for the specified object using binary search algorithm.
- Collections.disjoint() : - This method returns true if two specified collections have no elements in common.
- Collections.copy() : - This method copies all elements from one collection to another collection.
- Collections.reverse() : - This method reverses the order of elements in the specified collection.
What is the root interface in the collection hierarchy?
Collection interface extends Iterable interface(which is present in java.lang package not in java.util package). In Oracle doc, the iterable interface is not mentioned as a part of the Java Collections framework. So if the interviewer asks you this question, then you should answer that the root interface is as Collection interface (which is found in java.util package).Why Collection doesn’t extend Cloneable and Serializable interfaces?
- The Collection interface specifies groups of objects known as elements. Each concrete implementation of a Collection can choose its own way of how maintaining and ordering its elements. Some collections allow duplicate keys, while some other collections don’t.
- The semantics and the implications of either cloning or serialization come into play when dealing with actual implementations. That's why the concrete implementations of collections should decide how they can be cloned or serialized.
What is a Set in Java?
The java.util.Set is an interface, which is a subtype of the java.util.Collection interface with the following properties:- Duplicate elements are not allowed.
- Elements are not stored in order. That means you cannot expect elements sorted in any order when iterating over elements of a Set.
What is the difference between List and Set?
Set contains only unique elements while List can contain duplicate elements. Set is unordered while List is ordered(maintains the order in which the objects are added).What is the difference between Map and Set?
Map object has unique keys each containing some value, while Set contains only unique values.What is a Java HashSet?
Java HashSet class is used to create a collection that uses a hash table for storage. It inherits the AbstractSet class and implements the Set interface. The important points about Java HashSet class are:- HashSet stores the elements by using a mechanism called hashing.
- HashSet contains unique elements only.
HashSet class declaration:
public class HashSet < E > extends AbstractSet
Constructors of HashSet:
- HashSet() : Construct a new, empty HashSet whose backing HashMap has the default capacity (16) and loadFacor (0.75).
- HashSet(Collection c) : It is used to initialize the hash set by using the elements of the collection c.
- HashSet(int capacity): It is used to initialize the capacity of the hash set to the given integer value capacity. The capacity grows automatically as elements are added to the HashSet.
Methods of Java HashSet class:
- void clear(): It is used to remove all of the elements from this set.
- boolean contains(Object o): It is used to return true if this set contains the specified element.
- boolean add(Object o): It is used to add the specified element to this set if it is not already present.
- boolean isEmpty(): It is used to return true if this set contains no elements.
- boolean remove(Object o): It is used to remove the specified element from this set if it is present.
- Object clone(): It is used to return a shallow copy of this HashSet instance: the elements themselves are not cloned.
- Iterator iterator(): It is used to return an iterator over the elements in this set.
- int size(): It is used to return the number of elements in this set.
How does HashSet is implemented in Java?
HashSet is internally implemented using HashMap. Whenever we create a HashSet object, one HashMap object associated with it is also created. The elements we add into HashSet are stored as keys of this HashMap object, whereas the value associated with those keys will be a constant.Every constructor of HashSet class internally creates one HashMap object.
private transient HashMap map;
public HashSet()
{
map = new HashMap<>();
}
public HashSet(Collection c)
{
map = new HashMap<>(Math.max((int) (c.size()/.75f) + 1, 16));
addAll(c);
}
public HashSet(int initialCapacity, float loadFactor)
{
map = new HashMap<>(initialCapacity, loadFactor);
}
public HashSet(int initialCapacity)
{
map = new HashMap<>(initialCapacity);
}
Whenever we insert an element into HashSet using add() method, it actually creates an entry in the internally backing HashMap object with an element you have specified as its key and constant called “PRESENT” as its value. e.g:
private static final Object PRESENT = new Object();
add() method of HashSet class internally calls put() method of backing HashMap object by passing the element you have specified as a key and constant “PRESENT” as its value. e.g:
public boolean add(E e)
{
return map.put(e, PRESENT)==null;
}
remove() method also works in the same manner.
public boolean remove(Object o)
{
return map.remove(o)==PRESENT;
}
What is a Java LinkedHashSet?
Java LinkedHashSet class is a Linked list implementation of the Set interface. It inherits HashSet class and implements the Set interface. The important points about the Java LinkedHashSet class are:- Contains unique elements only like HashSet.
- Provides all optional set operations, and permits null elements.
- Maintains insertion order.
public class LinkedHashSet < E > extends HashSet < E > implements Set < E > , Cloneable, Serializable
Constructors of Java LinkedHashSet class
- LinkedHashSet(): It is used to construct a default LinkedHashSet.
- LinkedHashSet(Collection c): It is used to initialize the LinkedHashSet by using the elements of the collection c.
- LinkedHashSet(int capacity): It is used initialize the capacity of the LinkedHashSet to the given integer value capacity.
- LinkedHashSet(int capacity, float fillRatio): It is used to initialize both the capacity and the fill ratio (also called load capacity) of the hash set from its argument.
What is a Java TreeSet?
Java TreeSet class implements the Set interface that uses a tree for storage. It inherits AbstractSet class and implements NavigableSet interface. The objects of TreeSet class are stored in ascending order. The important points about the Java TreeSet class are:- Contains unique elements only like HashSet.
- Access and retrieval times are quite fast.
- Maintains ascending order.
- It doesn't preserve the insertion order of the elements.
- It's not thread-safe.
- TreeSet uses a self-balancing binary search tree, more specifically a Red-Black tree.
public class TreeSet < E > extends AbstractSet < E > implements NavigableSet < E > , Cloneable, Serializable
Constructors of Java TreeSet class
- TreeSet(): It is used to construct an empty tree set that will be sorted in ascending order according to the natural order of the tree set.
- TreeSet(Collection c): It is used to build a new tree set that contains the elements of the collection c.
- TreeSet(Comparator comp): It is used to construct an empty tree set that will be sorted according to the given comparator.
- TreeSet(SortedSet ss): It is used to build a TreeSet that contains the elements of the given SortedSet.
- boolean addAll(Collection c): It is used to add all of the elements in the specified collection to this set.
- boolean contains(Object o): It is used to return true if this set contains the specified element.
- boolean isEmpty(): It is used to return true if this set contains no elements.
- boolean remove(Object o): It is used to remove the specified element from this set if it is present.
- boolean add(Object o): It is used to add the specified element to this set if it is not already present.
- void clear(): It is used to remove all of the elements from this set.
- Object clone(): It is used to return a shallow copy of this TreeSet instance.
- Object first(): It is used to return the first (lowest) element currently in this sorted set.
- Object last(): It is used to return the last (highest) element currently in this sorted set.
- int size(): It is used to return the number of elements in this set.
What is the difference between HashSet and TreeSet?
Main differences between HashSet and TreeSet are :a. HashSet stores the object in random order, there is no guarantee that the element we inserted first in the HashSet will be printed first in the output. While elements are sorted according to the natural ordering of their elements in TreeSet. If the objects can not be sorted in the natural order then use compareTo() method to sort the elements of TreeSet object.
b. HashSet can store null objects while TreeSet can not store null objects. If one tries to store a null object in the TreeSet object, it will throw Null Pointer Exception.
c. HashSet takes constant time performance for the basic operations like add, remove contains, and size. While TreeSet guarantees log(n) time cost for the basic operations(add,remove,contains).
d. HashSet is much faster than TreeSet, as the performance time of HashSet is constant against the log time of TreeSet for most operations (add, remove,contains, and size). Iteration performance of HashSet mainly depends on the load factor and initial capacity parameters.
e. HashSet uses equals() method for comparison in java while TreeSet uses compareTo() method for maintaining ordering.
Can a null element add to a Treeset or HashSet?
A null element can not be added in Treeset, if you try to add it will throw NullPointerException. HashSet is based on hashMap and can contain null element.Why can't we add BigDecimal to TreeSet?
Lets look at the below example:BigDecimal b1= new BigDecimal("1.0");
BigDecimal b2= new BigDecimal("1.00");
System.out.println(b1.compareTo(b2)); //0
System.out.println(b1.equals(b2)); //false
equals() of BigDecimal will return false, because their precision is different, whereas compareTo() will return 0 because the "value" is the same.
Now lets do the same thing by using Double:
Double d1=new Double(1.0);
Double d2=new Double(1.00);
System.out.println(d1.compareTo(d2)); //0
System.out.println(d1.equals(d2)); //true
In above case, compareTo will return 0 and equals will return true.
So, if you store these two BigDecimal in HashSet you will end up with duplicates (violation of Set Contract), while if you store them in TreeSet you will end up with just 1 element because HashSet uses equals() to check duplicates while TreeSet uses compareTo() to check duplicates.
What is an ArrayList in Java?
Java ArrayList class uses a dynamic array for storing the elements. It inherits AbstractList class and implements the List interface. The important points about the Java ArrayList class are:- Java ArrayList class can contain duplicate elements.
- Java ArrayList class maintains insertion order.
- Java ArrayList class is nonsynchronized.
- Java ArrayList allows random access because the array works on an index basis.
- In the Java ArrayList class, manipulation is slow because a lot of shifting needs to occur if any element is removed from the array list.
- ArrayList is a generic class, so we can parameterize it with any type we want.
- It is good practice to use a generic interface List as a variable type because it decouples it from a particular implementation.
- Random-access takes O(1) time
- Adding element takes amortized constant time O(1)
- Inserting/Deleting takes O(n) time
- Searching takes O(n) time for an unsorted array and O(log n) for a sorted one
public class ArrayList < E > extends AbstractList < E > implements List < E > , RandomAccess, Cloneable, Serializable
Constructors of Java ArrayList
- ArrayList(): It is used to build an empty array list.
- ArrayList(Collection c): It is used to build an array list that is initialized with the elements of the collection c.
- ArrayList(int capacity) It is used to build an array list that has the specified initial capacity.
- void add(int index, Object element): It is used to insert the specified element at the specified position index in a list.
- boolean addAll(Collection c) It is used to append all of the elements in the specified collection to the end of this list, in the order that they are returned by the specified collection's iterator.
- void clear() : It is used to remove all of the elements from this list.
- int lastIndexOf(Object o) It is used to return the index in this list of the last occurrence of the specified element, or -1 if the list does not contain this element.
- Object[] toArray(): It is used to return an array containing all of the elements in this list in the correct order.
- Object[] toArray(Object[] a): It is used to return an array containing all of the elements in this list in the correct order.
- boolean add(Object o) : It is used to append the specified element to the end of a list.
- boolean addAll(int index, Collection c): It is used to insert all of the elements in the specified collection into this list, starting at the specified position.
- Object clone(): It is used to return a shallow copy of an ArrayList.
- int indexOf(Object o): It is used to return the index in this list of the first occurrence of the specified element, or -1 if the List does not contain this element.
- void trimToSize(): It is used to trim the capacity of this ArrayList instance to be the list's current size.
What is the difference between Array and ArrayList in Java?
a. Array is static in size that is fixed length data structure, one can not change the length after creating the Array object. While ArrayList is dynamic in size. Each ArrayList object has instance variable capacity which indicates the size of the ArrayList. As elements are added to an ArrayList its capacity grows automatically.b. ArrayList can not contain primitive data types (like int, float, double) it can only contain Objects, while Array can contain both primitive data types as well as objects. One gets a misconception that we can store primitives(int, float, double) in ArrayList, but it is not true. Let us take an example:
ArrayList arraylistobject = new ArrayList();
arraylistobject.add(10); // try to add primitive 10
JVM through Autoboxing (converting primitives to equivalent objects internally) ensures that only objects are added to the ArrayList object. Thus, the above step internally works like this :
arraylistobject.add(new Integer(10)); //Converted int primitive to Integer object and added to arraylistobject
c. Length of the ArrayList is provided by the size() method while Each array object has the length variable which returns the length of the array.
e.g :
Integer arrayobject[] = new Integer[3];
arraylength= arrayobject.length; //uses arrayobject length variable
ArrayList arraylistobject = new ArrayList();
arraylistobject.add(10);
arraylistobject.size();//uses arraylistobject size method
d. Array can be multi-dimensional, while ArrayList is always single-dimensional.
e. In Java, one can ensure Type Safety through Generics. while Array is a homogeneous data structure, thus it will contain objects of a specific class or primitives of a specific data type. In an array, if one tries to store the different data type other than the specified while creating the array object, ArrayStoreException is thrown. e.g :
String temp[] = new String[2]; // creates a string array of size 2
temp[0] = new Integer(12); // throws ArrayStoreException, trying to add Integer object in String[]
f. We can insert elements into the ArrayList object using the add() method while in the array we insert elements using the assignment operator.
e.g :
Integer addarrayobject[] = new Integer[5];
addarrayobject[0]= new Integer(1);
Similarities Between Array and ArrayList
a. add and get method: Performance of Array and ArrayList are similar for the add and get operations. Both operations run in constant time.b. Duplicate elements: Both array and ArrayList can contain duplicate elements.
c. Null Values: Both can store null values and uses the index to refer to their elements.
d. Unordered: Both do not guarantee ordered elements.
How to convert the array of strings into the list?
Array class of java.util package contains the method asList() which accepts the array as a parameter.e.g:
String[] meArray = {"I" , "Me" , "Myself"};
List meList = Arrays.asList(meArray);
What is the significance of ensureCapacity() method of Arraylist?
ArrayList internally implements a growable dynamic array which means it can increase and decrease its size automatically. If we try to add an element to an already full ArrayList then it automatically re-sized internally to accommodate the new element however sometimes it's not a good approach.If you want to add a huge number of elements to an already full ArrayList, in such case ArrayList has to be resized several times, which would result in poor performance. For such scenarios, you can use, ensureCapacity() method of Java.util.ArrayList class. This method increases the size of the ArrayList by a specified capacity.
ensureCapacity(int minCapacity), takes minimum capacity as input parameter and does not return any value, and does not throw any exception.
In the below code, what is the max acceptable value of n?
public static void main(String[] args) {ArrayList
names.add("Himaanshu Shuklaa");
names.add("John Mathew");
names.add("Emmy Watson");
names.add(n, "Rita Anderson");
System.out.println(names);
}
Ans: n should be less than or equal to the size of ArrayList while doing 'names.add(n, "Rita Anderson")'
Write a program to remove nulls from a List.
Lets say we have an arraylist of names with size =6, it has 3 null names,List < String > names=new ArrayList < String > ();
names.add(null);
names.add("Himanshu Shukla");
names.add("Sana Rafat");
names.add(null);
names.add("Brandon");
names.add(null);
a). We can remove null's by using while loop.
while (names.remove(null));
b). We can do the same thing by using removeAll method.
names.removeAll(Collections.singleton(null));
c). By using Java 8's Lambdas to filter the List. We can use either parallel or serial stream:
List < String > namesWithoutNulls = names.parallelStream()
.filter(Objects::nonNull).collect(Collectors.toList());
Write a program to remove duplicates from a list.
Lets say we have an arraylist of employee id's.List < Integer > duplicateEmpIds=new ArrayList < Integer > ();
duplicateEmpIds.add(1);
duplicateEmpIds.add(2);
duplicateEmpIds.add(1);
duplicateEmpIds.add(3);
duplicateEmpIds.add(3);
duplicateEmpIds.add(3);
a). We can easily remove the duplicates using the set
List < Integer > uniqueEmpIds = new ArrayList < > (new HashSet(duplicateEmpIds));
b). We can also remove duplicates from a List using Java 8 Lambdas and distinct() method of Streams
List < Integer > uniqueEmpIds = duplicateEmpIds.stream()
.distinct().collect(Collectors.toList());
What will be the output of the below program?
String[] names = { "Himanshu", "Sana", "Brandon", "Arnold" };List < String > namesList = Arrays.asList(names);
namesList.add("Margarita");
This will throw an UnsupportedOperationException. asList will return a fixed-size List as of the size of a given array. It's an ArrayList, from java.util.Arrays.
Since the returned List is a fixed-size list, we can’t add/remove elements. An attempt to add more elements would cause UnsupportedOperationException. This Exception occurred because the returned object doesn't implement the add() operation since it isn't the same as java.util.ArrayList.
How can we copy a List to another List in Java?
Let's say we have a list, which contains names:List < String > names=new ArrayList < String > ();
names.add("Himanshu Shukla");
names.add("Sana Rafat");
names.add("Andrew Hudson");
a). Copy by constructor: The simplest way to copy a List is by using the constructor that takes a collection as its argument:
List < String > copiednames=new ArrayList < String > (names);
Let's say the names List contains the list of 'Names' class. In this came if we create a copied name, and someone makes changes in any element of the 'names' list it would affect the corresponding element of 'copiednames' list. This is because of the fact that we're copying references here and not cloning the objects, any change made in one element will affect both lists. That's why using the constructor is good to copy only the immutable objects.
If a thread is modifying the list while another thread is trying to copy it, ConcurrentAccessException will be thrown. To fix this issue, either uses a designed concurrent access collection or lock the collection appropriately to iterate over it.
For concurrent access collection, CopyOnWhiteArrayList can be used, in which all mutative operations are implemented by making a fresh copy of the underlying array. To lock the Collection, it's possible to use a lock primitive to serialize read/write access, such as ReentrantReadWriteLock.
b). AddAll() method:
List < String > copiednames = new ArrayList < > ();
copiednames.addAll(names);
c). Collections.copy: Collections class has a copy method which needs a source and a destination list, it will maintain the index of each copied element in the destination list such as the original.
In the below example all the previous elements in the destEmpIdList were overwritten because both lists have the same size. After copy destEmpIdList will contain 1,2,3:
List < Integer > sourceEmpIdList = Arrays.asList(1,2,3);
List < Integer > destEmpIdList = Arrays.asList(4,5,6);
Collections.copy(destEmpIdList, sourceEmpIdList);
In the below example, the destination list size is larger than the source. In this case, three first items were overwritten while the rest of the elements in the list are conserved. After copy destEmpIdList will contain 1,2,3,7,8,9:
List < Integer > sourceEmpIdList = Arrays.asList(1,2,3);
List < Integer > destEmpIdList = Arrays.asList(4,5,6,7,8,9);
Collections.copy(destEmpIdList, sourceEmpIdList);
d). By using Java 8: We can use Streams to copy the list. We can even filter the source list while doing the copy operation.
List < Integer > sourceEmpIdList = Arrays.asList(1,2,3);
List < Integer > destEmpIdList = sourceEmpIdList.stream()
.collect(Collectors.toList());
What is a linked list?
- LinkedList is a doubly-linked list implementation of the List and Deque interfaces.
- LinkedList maintains insertion order.
- Every element is a node, which keeps a reference to the next and previous ones.
- It implements all optional list operations and permits all elements including nulls).
- Iterator and ListIterator iterators of a LinkedList are fail-fast (if the list is modified after the iterator's creation a ConcurrentModificationException will be thrown).
- LinkedList is not synchronized, we can retrieve a synchronized version of it by calling the Collections.synchronizedList method, e.g: List list = Collections.synchronizedList(new LinkedList(__));
- To create a linkedlist, LinkedList < object > linkedList = new LinkedList < object > ()
- LinkedList implements the List and Deque interface, that's why besides standard add() and addAll() methods we can find addFirst() and addLast() methods, which add an element in the beginning or at the end respectively.
- It offers removeFirst() and removeLast() to remove an element from the beginning or from the end respectively. Also, removeFirstOccurence() and removeLastOccurence() methods are there which returns true if collection contained specified element.
- Deque extends Queue interface, that's why it provides queue-like behaviors, e.g : linkedList.poll() and linkedList.pop(). These methods retrieve the first element and remove it from the list.
- The difference between poll() and pop() is that pop will throw NoSuchElementException() on empty list, whereas poll returns null.
- Also, pollFirst() and pollLast() are also available.
- push() method inserts the element as the head of the LinkedList, linkedList.push(Object o);
When should you use ArrayList and when should you use LinkedList?
- If you need to support random access, without inserting or removing elements from anywhere other than the ends, then ArrayList is a better choice.
- If you add and remove elements from the middle of the list frequently while accessing them sequentially, then LinkedList is better.
- A LinkedList consumes more memory than an ArrayList because every node in a LinkedList stores two references, one for its previous element and one for its next element, whereas ArrayList holds only data and its index. Memory usage should be considered when choosing between an ArrayList and LinkedList.
What is CopyOnWriteArrayList? How it is different from ArrayList in Java?
- It is introduced in JDK1.5 as a thread-safe variant of ArrayList.
- When we are using any of the modified methods – such as add() or remove(), the whole content of the CopyOnWriteArrayList is copied into the new internal copy. i.e all mutative operations are implemented by creating a fresh copy of the underlying array. Because of this, we can iterate over the list in a safe way, even when concurrent modification is happening.
- When we're calling the iterator() method on the CopyOnWriteArrayList, we get back an Iterator backed up by the immutable snapshot of the content of the CopyOnWriteArrayList. Its content is an exact copy of data that is inside an ArrayList from the time when the Iterator was created. If other threads add or remove an element from the list, that modification is making a fresh copy of the data that will be used in any further data lookup from that list. This guarantees that it will not throw ConcurrentModificationException and it permits all elements including null.
- Due to the copying mechanism in CopyOnWriteArrayList, the remove() operation on the returned Iterator will throw an UnsupportedOperationException.
Difference between Arraylist and Vector in Java
This is a very common Core Java Interview question.- Both Vector and ArrayList are derived from AbstractList and implements List interface, which means both of them are ordered collection and allows duplicates.
- Both Vector and ArrayList are index based Collection, which means we can use get(index) method to retrieve objects from Vector and ArrayList.
- Vector is synchronized while ArrayList is not synchronized. Synchronization and thread safe means at a time only one thread can access the code. In Vector class all the methods are synchronized, that's why the Vector object is already synchronized when it is created.
- Vector is slow as it is thread safe. In comparison ArrayList is fast as it is non synchronized. Thus in ArrayList two or more threads can access the code at the same time, while Vector is limited to one thread at a time.
- A Vector defaults to doubling size of its array. By default ArrayList size is 10. While when you insert an element into the ArrayList, it checks whether it reaches the last element then it will create the new array with a size = (Array size + 50% of array size), copy the new data of last array to new array, then old array is garbage collected by the Java Virtual Machine (JVM).
- Other than HashTable, Vector is the only other class which uses both Enumeration and Iterator. While ArrayList can only use Iterator for traversing an ArrayList.
- java.util.Vector class was there in java since the very first version of the java development kit (jdk). java.util.ArrayList was introduced in java version 1.2 as part of Java Collections framework. In java version 1.2, Vector class has been refactored to implement the List Interface.
- Vector( ) : This constructor creates a default vector, which has an initial size of 10.
- Vector(int size) : This constructor accepts an argument that equals to the required size, and creates a vector whose initial capacity is specified by size.
- Vector(int size, int incr) : This constructor creates a vector whose initial capacity is specified by size and whose increment is specified by incr. The increment specifies the number of elements to allocate each time that a vector is resized upward.
- Vector(Collection c) : This constructor creates a vector that contains the elements of collection c.
Stack, Properties, Vector and Hashtable.
What is the difference between Queue and Stack?
Queue is a data structure which is based on FIFO(first in first out) property. Stack is a data structure which is based on LIFO (last in first out) property.
What is an Iterator?
Iterator is an interface, which found in java.util package and provides methods to iterate over any Collection.
What is the difference between Iterator and Enumeration?
- Enumeration is older and its there from JDK1.0, while iterator was introduced later.
- The main difference between Iterator and Enumeration is that Iterator has remove() method while Enumeration doesn't. Hence, using Iterator we can manipulate objects by adding and removing the objects from the collections. Enumeration behaves like a read only interface as it can only traverse the objects and fetch it.
- Enumeration is twice as fast as compared to an Iterator and uses very less memory.
- Iterator is more secure and safe as compared to Enumeration because it does not allow other thread to modify the collection object while some thread is iterating over it and throws ConcurrentModificationException.
- Enumeration methods hasMoreElement() and nextElement(). Iterator methods hasNext(), next() and remove().
It follows iterator design pattern. Iterator design pattern provides us to navigate through the collection of objects by using a common interface without letting us know about the underlying implementation.
Enumeration is also an example of Iterator design pattern.
If an ArrayList has to be iterated to read data only, what are the possible ways and which is the fastest?
It can be done in two ways, using for loop or using iterator of ArrayList. The first option is faster than using iterator. Because value stored in arraylist is indexed access. So while accessing the value is accessed directly as per the index.
If accessing through iterator is slow then why do we need it and when to use it.
For loop does not allow the updation in the array(add or remove operation) inside the loop whereas Iterator does. Also Iterator can be used where there is no clue what type of collections will be used because all collections have iterator.
Why is it preferred to declare: List < String > list = new ArrayList < String > (); instead of ArrayList < String > = new ArrayList < String > ();
- If later on code needs to be changed from ArrayList to Vector then only at the declaration place we can do that.
- The most important one – If a function is declared such that it takes list. E.g void showDetails(List list);
- When the parameter is declared as List to the function it can be called by passing any subclass of List like ArrayList,Vector,LinkedList making the function more flexible.
using Collections.sort(list, String.CASE_INSENSITIVE_ORDER);
How to make a List (ArrayList,Vector,LinkedList) read only or Immutable?
- A list implementation can be made read only or Immutable using Collections.unmodifiableList(list).
- This method returns a new list. If a user tries to perform add operation on the new list; UnSupportedOperationException is thrown.
- An Iterator can be used to traverse the Set and List collections, while the ListIterator can be used to iterate only over List .
- The Iterator can traverse a collection only in forward direction, while the ListIterator can traverse a List in both directions.
- The ListIterator implements the Iterator interface and contains extra functionality, such as adding an element, replacing an element, getting the index position for previous and next elements, etc.
Explain the methods present in ListIterator?
ListIterator has these methods: add(), hasNext(), hasPrevious(), nextIndex(), next(), previousIndex(), previous(), remove(), set().
- void add(E e): The add() method of ListIterator interface is used to insert the given element into the specified list. The element is inserted automatically before the next element may return by next() method. This method may throw UnsupportedOperationalArgument (if the add() method is not supported by the given list iterator), ClassCastException (if the class of some of the element avoids it from being added into the list) or IllegalArgumentException (if some of the element avoids it from being added into the list).
- boolean hasNext(): The hasNext() method of ListIterator interface is used to return true if the given list iterator contains more number of element during traversing the given list in the forward direction,else it will return false.
- boolean hasPrevious(): It returns true if the list iterator has more elements when traversing the list in the backward direction.
- int nextIndex(): It return the index of the element which is returned by the next() method. The method may also return the list size only if the list iterator is placed at the end of the list.
- int previousIndex(): It return the index of the given element which is returned by a call to previous. The method may return -1 if and only if the iterator is placed at the beginning of the list.
- public E next(): It return the next element in the given list. This method is used to iterate through the list. The next() can throw NoSuchElementException if there are no elements left in the iteration.
- public E previous(): It return the previous element of the given list. The previous() method can throw NoSuchElementException, if the given iteration has no such previous elements.
- void remove(): The remove() method of ListIterator interface is used to remove the last element from the list which is returned by next() or previous() method. The above method can only be called if the add(E) has not been called. The remove() method of ListIterator interface can throw UnsupportedOperationException (if the given remove operation is not supported by the list iterator) or IllegalStateException (if neither the next() nor the previous() method has been called).
- void set(E e): The set() method of ListIterator interface is used to replace the last element which is returned by the next() or previous() along with the given element. The call can be added only if neither remove() nor add(E) method have been called. It can throw UnsupportedOperationException (if the given set operation is not supported by the list iterator), ClassCastException (if the given class of the specified element is not supported by the list iterator), IllegalArgumentException (if some of the aspects of the given element avoid it from being added to the list) or IllegalStateException (if neither the next() nor the previous() method has been called)
What is the difference between fail-fast and fail-safe Iterators?
Fail-fast Iterators throws ConcurrentModificationException when one Thread is iterating over collection object and other thread structurally modify Collection either by adding, removing or modifying objects on underlying collection. They are called fail-fast because they try to immediately throw Exception when they encounter failure.Where as, fail-safe iterator traverse over a copy or view of original collection.
Most of the Collection classes from Java 1.4 e.g. ArrayList, HashMap, HashSet has fail-fast iterators.
The other type of iterator was introduced in Java 1.5 when concurrent collection classes e.g. ConcurrentHashMap, CopyOnWriteArrayList and CopyOnWriteArraySet was introduced. These iterator uses a view of original collection for doing iteration and that's why they doesn't throw ConcurrentModificationException even when original collection was modified after iteration has begun. This means you could iterate and work with stale value, but this is the cost you need to pay for fail-safe iterator.
What is the difference between the remove() method of Collection and remove() method of Iterator?
Collection interface defines remove(Object obj) method to remove objects from Collection. List interface adds another method remove(int index), which is used to remove object at specific index. You can use any of these method to remove an entry from Collection, while not iterating.
But, you should not use Collection's or List's remove() method during iteration then your code will throw ConcurrentModificationException. Instead use Iterator's remove() method, which removes current element from Iterator's perspective.
How to reverse the List in Collections?
Collections.reverse(listobject);
What is the difference between peek(), poll() and remove() method of the Queue interface?Both poll() and remove() method is used to remove head object of the Queue. The main difference lies when the Queue is empty(), then poll() method will return null while remove() method will throw NoSuchElementException. peek() method retrieves but does not remove the head of the Queue. If queue is empty then peek() method also returns null.
What is the difference between Synchronized Collection and Concurrent Collection?
Though all three collection classes (ConcurrentHashMap, Hashtable, Synchronized Map) are thread-safe and can be used in multi-threaded, concurrent Java application, there is a significant difference between them.
All methods of Hashtable and Synchronized Map are synchronized which makes them quite slow due to contention if a number of thread increases.
ConcurrentHashMap is scalable as it uses stripped locking technique and is specially designed for concurrent use i.e. more than one thread. By default it simultaneously allows 16 threads to read and write from Map without any external synchronization. Unlike Hashtable and Synchronized Map, it never locks whole Map, instead, it divides the map into segments and locking is done on those. Though it performs better if a number of reader threads are greater than the number of writer threads.
What is a Map?
Its an interface which maps unique keys to values. A key is an object that you use to retrieve a value at a later date.
- Several methods throw a NoSuchElementException when no items exist in the invoking map.
- A ClassCastException is thrown when an object is incompatible with the elements in a map.
- A NullPointerException is thrown if an attempt is made to use a null object and null is not allowed in the map.
- An UnsupportedOperationException is thrown when an attempt is made to change an unmodifiable map.
- void clear( ) : Removes all key/value pairs from the invoking map.
- boolean containsKey(Object k) : Returns true if the invoking map contains k as a key. Otherwise, returns false.
- boolean containsValue(Object v) : Returns true if the map contains v as a value. Otherwise, returns false.
- Set entrySet( ) : Returns a Set that contains the entries in the map. The set contains objects of type Map.Entry. This method provides a set-view of the invoking map.
- boolean equals(Object obj): Returns true if obj is a Map and contains the same entries. Otherwise, returns false.
- Object get(Object k) : Returns the value associated with the key k.
- int hashCode( ) : Returns the hash code for the invoking map.
- boolean isEmpty( ) : Returns true if the invoking map is empty. Otherwise, returns false.
- Set keySet( ) : Returns a Set that contains the keys in the invoking map. This method provides a set-view of the keys in the invoking map.
- Object put(Object k, Object v) : Puts an entry in the invoking map, overwriting any previous value associated with the key. The key and value are k and v, respectively. Returns null if the key did not already exist. Otherwise, the previous value linked to the key is returned.
- void putAll(Map m) : Puts all the entries from m into this map.
- Object remove(Object k) : Removes the entry whose key equals k.
- Collection values( ) : Returns a collection containing the values in the map. This method provides a collection-view of the values in the map.
Map interface is not compatible with the Collection interface. Since Map requires key as well as value, e.g if we want to add key-value pair then we will use put(Object key , Object value). So there are two parameters required to add element to the HashMap object. In Collection interface add(Object o) has only one parameter. The other reason is, Map supports valueSet, keySet as well as other appropriate methods which have just different views from the Collection interface.
What is a Hashtable?
Java Hashtable class implements Map, which maps keys to values. Here is the declaration for java.util.Hashtable class.
public class Hashtable < K,V > extends Dictionary implements Map < K,V >, Cloneable, Serializable
where, K is the type of keys maintained by this map and V is the type of mapped values.
The important points about Java Hashtable class are:
- A Hashtable is an array of list. Each list is known as a bucket. The position of bucket is identified by calling the hashcode() method. A Hashtable contains values based on the key.
- It contains only unique elements.
- It may have not have any null key or value.
- It is synchronized.
- Hashtable() : Constructs a new, empty hashtable with a default initial capacity (11) and load factor (0.75).
- Hashtable(int initialCapacity) : Constructs a new, empty hashtable with the specified initial capacity and default load factor (0.75).
- Hashtable(int initialCapacity, float loadFactor) : Constructs a new, empty hashtable with the specified initial capacity and the specified load factor.
As a general rule, the default load factor (.75) offers a good tradeoff between time and space costs. Higher values decrease the space overhead but increase the lookup cost (reflected in most of the operations of the HashMap class, including get and put). The expected number of entries in the map and its load factor should be taken into account when setting its initial capacity, so as to minimize the number of rehash operations. If the initial capacity is greater than the maximum number of entries divided by the load factor, no rehash operations will ever occur.
A hash table is a collection of items which are stored in such a way as to make it easy to find them later. Each position of the hash table, often called a slot, can hold an item and is named by an integer value starting at 0.
Initially, the hash table contains no items so every slot is empty.
hashCode() is a hash function which is present in Object class and returns an integer value (known as Hash value). This function provides the mapping between an item and the slot where that item belongs in the hash table.
hash = hashfunc(key)
index = hash % array_size
The hash function will take any item in the collection and return an integer in the range of slot names, between 0 and m-1.
Once the hash values have been computed, we can insert each item into the hash table at the designated position. When we want to search for an item, we simply use the hash function to compute the slot name for the item and then check the hash table to see if it is present. This searching operation is O(1), since a constant amount of time is required to compute the hash value and then index the hash table at that location. If everything is where it should be, we have found a constant time search algorithm.
Collision (it may also be called a “clash”), when two or more items would need to be in the same slot, which will create a problem for the hashing technique.
How to write a perfect hash function?
A hash function that maps each item into a unique slot is referred to as a perfect hash function. However, irrespective of how good a hash function is, collisions are bound to occur. Nevertheless, we do not need the hash function to be perfect to still gain performance efficiency.
One way to always have a perfect hash function is to increase the size of the hash table so that each possible value in the item range can be accommodated. This guarantees that each item will have a unique slot. Although this is practical for small numbers of items, it is not feasible when the number of possible items is large.
As writing a perfect hash function is not alays possible, our goal should be to create a hash function that minimizes the number of collisions, is easy to compute, and evenly distributes the items in the hash table. There are a number of common ways to extend the simple remainder method. Here a few ways, we can write hash function:
#folding method : In this method we divide the item (key) into equal-size pieces (the last piece may not be of equal size). These pieces are then added together to give the resulting hash value. For example, if our item was the phone number 9920600280, we would take the digits and divide them into groups of 2 (99, 20, 60, 02, 80). After the addition, 99+20+60+02+80=195. If we assume our hash table has 11 slots, then we need to perform the extra step of dividing by 11 and keeping the remainder. In this case 195 % 11 is 8, so the phone number 9920600280 hashes to slot 8.
#mid-square method: In this method, we first square the item, and then extract some portion of the resulting digits. For example, if the item were 44, we would first compute the square of 44=1936. By extracting the middle two digits, 93, and performing the remainder step, we get 5 (93 % 11). Table 5 shows items under both the remainder method and the mid-square method.
How Hashmap works in Java
HashMap in Java works on hashing principle. It is a data structure which allows us to store object and retrieve it in constant time O(1) provided we know the key.
To understand Hashing, we first need to understand what is Hash Function, Hash Value and Bucket?
- hashCode() is a hash function which is present in Object class and returns an integer value.
- The Hash value is the int value returned by the hash function.
- A bucket is used to store key value pairs and can have multiple key-value pairs. In hash map, bucket used simple linked list to store objects.
When we call put method, hashcode() method of the key object is called so that hash function of the map can find a bucket location to store value object, which is actually an index of the internal array, known as the table.
HashMap internally stores mapping in the form of Map.Entry object which contains both key and value object. (Entry object stores in the bucket like this (hash,key,value,bucketindex)
When you want to retrieve the object, you call the get() method and again pass the key object. This time again key object generate same hash code (it's mandatory for it to do so to retrieve the object and that's why HashMap keys are immutable e.g. String) and we end up at same bucket location. If there is only one object then it is returned and that's your value object which you have stored earlier. Things get little tricky when collisions occur.
Since the internal array of HashMap is of fixed size, and if you keep storing objects, at some point of time hash function will return same bucket location for two different keys, this is called collision in HashMap. (two unequal objects in Java can have same hashcode). In this case, a linked list is formed at that bucket location and a new entry is stored as next node.
If we try to retrieve an object from this linked list, we need an extra check to search correct value, this is done by equals() method. Since each node contains an entry, HashMap keeps comparing entry's key object with the passed key using equals() and when it return true, Map returns the corresponding value.
Which methods you need to override to use any object as key in HashMap?
equals() and hashCode()
What happens On HashMap in Java if the size of the HashMap exceeds a given threshold defined by load factor?
If the size of the Map exceeds a given threshold defined by load-factor e.g. if the load factor is .75 it will act to re-size the map once it filled 75%. Similar to other collection classes like ArrayList, Java HashMap re-size itself by creating a new bucket array of size twice of the previous size of HashMap and then start putting every old element into that new bucket array. This process is called rehashing because it also applies the hash function to find new bucket location.
Does resizing of HashMap in Java creates any problem?
Yes there is potential race condition exists while resizing HashMap in Java, if two thread at the same time found that now HashMap needs resizing and they both try to resizing. On the process of resizing of HashMap, the element in the bucket which is stored in linked list get reversed in order during their migration to new bucket because Java HashMap doesn't append the new element at tail instead it append new element at the head to avoid tail traversing. If race condition happens then you will end up with an infinite loop.
What is the difference between HashMap and Hashtable?
- HashMap allows one null key and any number of null values while Hashtable does not allow null keys and null values.
- HashMap is not synchronized or thread-safe while Hashtable is synchronized or thread-safe .
- HashMap object values are iterated by using iterator. HashTable is the only class other than Vector which uses Enumerator to iterate the values of HashTable object.
- HashMap is much faster and uses less memory than Hashtable as former is unsynchronized. Unsynchronized objects are often much better in performance in compare to synchronized object like Hashtable in single threaded environment.
- HashMap is the subclass of the AbstractMap class, where as Hashtable is a subclass of Dictionary class(which is now obsolete in Jdk 1.7,so it is not used anymore). It is better off externally synchronizing a HashMap or using a ConcurrentMap implementation (e.g ConcurrentHashMap). Although Hashtable and HashMap has different superclasses but they both are implementations of the "Map" abstract data type.
- Java 5 introduced ConcurrentHashMap which is an alternative of Hashtable and provides better scalability than Hashtable in Java.
- Both HashMap and Hashtable does not guarantee that the order of the map will remain constant over time. Instead use LinkedHashMap, as the order remains constant over time.
- Both HashMap and Hashtable implements Map interface .
- Both HashMap and Hashtable provides constant time performance for put and get methods assuming that the objects are distributed uniformly across the bucket.
- Both HashMap and Hashtable works on the Principle of Hashing .
String is most frequently used key as well because String is immutable and final, and overrides equals and hashcode() method. Other wrapper class also shares similar property. Immutability is required, in order to prevent changes on fields used to calculate hashCode() because if key object returns different hashCode during insertion and retrieval than it won't be possible to get an object from HashMap.
Immutability is best as it offers other advantages as well like thread-safety, if you can keep your hashCode same by only making certain fields final, then you go for that as well. Since equals() and hashCode() method is used during retrieval of value object from HashMap, it's important that key object correctly override these methods and follow contact. If unequal object returns different hashcode than chances of collision will be less which subsequently improve the performance of HashMap.
Can we use any custom object as a key in HashMap?
Yes we can use any Object as key in Java HashMap provided it follows equals and hashCode contract and its hashCode should not vary once the object is inserted into Map. If the custom object is Immutable than this will be already taken care because you can not change it once created.
ALSO READ: HashCode & equals() Interview Questions in Java
How null key is handled in HashMap? Since equals() and hashCode() are used to store and retrieve values, how does it work in case of the null key?
Null keys always map to hash 0, thus index 0.
The null key is handled specially in HashMap, there are two separate methods for that putForNullKey(V value) and getForNullKey(). Later is offloaded version of get() to look up null keys. Null keys always map to index 0.
This null case is split out into separate methods for the sake of performance in the two most commonly used operations (get and put), but incorporated with conditionals in others. In short, equals() and hashcode() method are not used in case of null keys in HashMap.
private V getForNullKey() {
if (size == 0) {
return null;
}
for (Entry e = table[0]; e != null; e = e.next) {
if (e.key == null)
return e.value;
}
return null;
}
How Remove method in HashMap works internally in Java?
To understand how remove method of HashMap works, we first need to understand the Entry object. Map.Entry is the static nested class that stores the key/value pair that forms one element of HashMap. Entry object stores in the bucket in the following way (hash,key,value,bucketindex).
That means we need hashvalue and bucketindex besides key to get access to the desired Entry object in HashMap.
HashMap implementation of the remove(key) method in Java Apis that is rt.jar :
public class HashMap< K,V >
extends AbstractMap< K,V >
implements Map< K,V >, Cloneable, java.io.Serializable
{
public V remove (Object key){
Entry< K,V > e = removeEntryForKey(key);
return (e==null ? null : e.value);
}
}
remove(key) method calls removeEntryForKey(key) method internally, which calculate the final hashValue of the key object, and then use that hashValue in the indexFor(int,int) method to find the first entry object in the appropriate bucket.
Since bucket(table) is a LinkedList effectively, we start traversing from the first entry object which we got by using indexFor(int,int) method in the bucket. For each entry object in the bucket we compare whether hashValue and the key is equal to the calculated hashValue in the first step and the key passed as a parameter in the remove(key) method.
If desired Entry object is found, then we removed that single entry object from the LinkedList. Removing a single Entry object from the LinkedList is implemented just like removing a single object from the LinkedList.
Why String is popular HashMap key in Java?
Since String is immutable, its hashcode is cached at the time of creation and it doesn’t need to be calculated again. This makes it a great candidate for key in a Map and it’s processing is fast than other HashMap key objects. This is why String is mostly used Object as HashMap keys.
What is a LinkedHashMap? LinkedHashMap class is a Linked list implementation of the Map interface, with predictable iteration order. It inherits HashMap class and implements the Map interface. The important points about Java HashMap class are:
- A LinkedHashMap contains values based on the key.
- It contains only unique elements.
- It may have one null key and multiple null values.
- It is same as HashMap instead maintains insertion order.
public class LinkedHashMap < K,V > extends HashMap < K,V > implements Map < K,V >
Constructors of Java LinkedHashMap class
- LinkedHashMap() : It is used to construct a default LinkedHashMap.
- LinkedHashMap(int capacity) : It is used to initialize a LinkedHashMap with the given capacity.
- LinkedHashMap(int capacity, float loadfactor) : It is used to initialize both the capacity and the loadfactor.
- LinkedHashMap(Map m) : It is used to initialize the LinkedHashMap with the elements from the given Map class m.
What is a TreeMap?
Java TreeMap class implements the Map interface by using a tree. It provides an efficient means of storing key/value pairs in sorted order. The important points about Java TreeMap class are:- A TreeMap contains values based on the key. It implements the NavigableMap interface and extends AbstractMap class.
- It contains only unique elements.
- It cannot have the null key but can have multiple null values.
- It is the same as HashMap instead maintains ascending order.
here is TreeMap class declaration, where, K is the type of keys maintained by this map and V is the type of mapped values :
public class TreeMap < K,V > extends AbstractMap < K,V > implements NavigableMap < K,V > , Cloneable, Serializable
Constructors of Java TreeMap class
- TreeMap() : It is used to construct an empty tree map that will be sorted using the natural order of its key.
- TreeMap(Comparator comp) : It is used to construct an empty tree-based map that will be sorted using the comparator comp.
- TreeMap(Map m) : It is used to initialize a tree map with the entries from m, which will be sorted using the natural order of the keys.
- TreeMap(SortedMap sm) : It is used to initialize a tree map with the entries from the SortedMap sm, which will be sorted in the same order as sm.
- boolean containsKey(Object key) : It is used to return true if this map contains a mapping for the specified key.
- boolean containsValue(Object value) : It is used to return true if this map maps one or more keys to the specified value.
- Object firstKey() : It is used to return the first (lowest) key currently in this sorted map.
- Object get(Object key) : It is used to return the value to which this map maps the specified key.
- Object lastKey() : It is used to return the last (highest) key currently in this sorted map.
- Object remove(Object key) : It is used to remove the mapping for this key from this TreeMap if present.
- void putAll(Map map) : It is used to copy all of the mappings from the specified map to this map.
- Set entrySet() : It is used to return a set view of the mappings contained in this map.
- int size() : It is used to return the number of key-value mappings in this map.
- Collection values() : It is used to return a collection view of the values contained in this map.
What is difference between HashMap and TreeMap?
- HashMap can contain one null key, where as TreeMap can not contain any null key.
- HashMap maintains no order, whereas TreeMap maintains ascending order.
What is IdentityHashMap?
IdentityHashMap in Java was added in Java 1.4. The main difference between IdentityHashMap and HashMap in Java is that IdentityHashMap is a special implementation of the Map interface that doesn't use equals() and hashCode() method for comparing objects unlike other implementations of Map e.g. HashMap.Instead, IdentityHashMap uses the equality operator "==" to compare keys and values in Java which makes it faster compared to HashMap and suitable where you need reference equality check instead of logical equality.
By the way, IdentityHashMap is a special implementation of Map interface much like EnumMap but it also violates the general contract of Map interface which mandates using equals method for comparing Object.
Declaration for java.util.IdentityHashMap class:
public class IdentityHashMap < K,V > extends AbstractMap < K,V > implements Map , Serializable, Cloneable
Constructors of IdentityHashMap:
ConcurrentHashMap allows multiple readers to read concurrently without any blocking. This is achieved by partitioning Map into different parts based on concurrency level and locking only a portion of Map during updates.
By the way, IdentityHashMap is a special implementation of Map interface much like EnumMap but it also violates the general contract of Map interface which mandates using equals method for comparing Object.
Declaration for java.util.IdentityHashMap class:
public class IdentityHashMap < K,V > extends AbstractMap < K,V > implements Map
Constructors of IdentityHashMap:
- IdentityHashMap() : This constructs a new, empty identity hash map with a default expected maximum size (21).
- IdentityHashMap(int expectedMaxSize) : Tis constructs a new, empty map with the specified expected maximum size.
- IdentityHashMap(Map < ? extends K,? extends V > m) : This constructs a new identity hash map containing the keys-value mappings in the specified map.
Difference between IdentityHashMap and HashMap?
- The main difference between HashMap vs IdentityHashMap is that IdentityHashMap uses the equality operator "==" for comparing keys and values inside Map while HashMap uses the equals() method for comparing keys and values.
- Unlike HashMap, which uses hashcode to find bucket location, IdentityHashMap also doesn't use hashCode() instead it uses System.identityHashCode(object).
- Since IdentityHashMap doesn't use equals() its comparatively faster than HashMap for object with expensive equals() and hashCode().
- One more difference between HashMap and IdentityHashMap is the Immutability of the key. One of the basic requirement to safely store Objects in HashMap is keys need to be immutable, IdentityHashMap doesn't require keys to be immutable as it does not rely on equals and hashCode.
What is ConcurrentHashMap?
ConcurrentHashMap is introduced as an alternative to Hashtable and provided all functions supported by Hashtable with an additional feature called "concurrency level", which allows ConcurrentHashMap to partition Map.ConcurrentHashMap allows multiple readers to read concurrently without any blocking. This is achieved by partitioning Map into different parts based on concurrency level and locking only a portion of Map during updates.
The default concurrency level is 16, and accordingly, Map is divided into 16 parts and each part is governed by a different lock. This means, that 16 threads can operate on Map simultaneously until they are operating on a different part of Map. This makes ConcurrentHashMap high performance despite keeping thread safety intact.
Since update operations like put(), remove(), putAll() or clear() is not synchronized, concurrent retrieval may not reflect most recent change on Map.
b. ConcurrentHashMap doesn’t throw a ConcurrentModificationException if one thread tries to modify it while another is iterating over it.
c. HashMap can be synchronized by synchronizedMap(HashMap) method, which will return a collection that is almost equivalent to Hashtable, where every modification operation on Map is locked on Map object while in the case of ConcurrentHashMap, thread-safety is achieved by dividing the whole Map into different partition based upon Concurrency level and only locking particular portion instead of locking the whole Map.
d. ConcurrentHashMap does not allow null values, so the key can not be null in ConcurrentHashMap. While In HashMap there can only be one null key.
Since update operations like put(), remove(), putAll() or clear() is not synchronized, concurrent retrieval may not reflect most recent change on Map.
Difference between HashMap and ConcurrentHashMap?
a. ConcurrentHashMap is thread-safe that is the code can be accessed by a single thread at a time. While HashMap is not thread-safe.b. ConcurrentHashMap doesn’t throw a ConcurrentModificationException if one thread tries to modify it while another is iterating over it.
c. HashMap can be synchronized by synchronizedMap(HashMap) method, which will return a collection that is almost equivalent to Hashtable, where every modification operation on Map is locked on Map object while in the case of ConcurrentHashMap, thread-safety is achieved by dividing the whole Map into different partition based upon Concurrency level and only locking particular portion instead of locking the whole Map.
d. ConcurrentHashMap does not allow null values, so the key can not be null in ConcurrentHashMap. While In HashMap there can only be one null key.
What is WeakHashMap?
A hashtable-based Map implementation with weak keys. An entry in a WeakHashMap will automatically be removed when its key is no longer in ordinary use. More precisely, the presence of a mapping for a given key will not prevent the key from being discarded by the garbage collector, that is, made finalizable, finalized, and then reclaimed. When a key has been discarded its entry is effectively removed from the map, so this class behaves somewhat differently than other Map implementations.
{
//create a map which contains Employee-Manager's mapping
HashMap < String, String > empManager = new HashMap < String, String > ();
empManager.put("Martin", "Russhal");
empManager.put("Andreas", "Mattrias");
empManager.put("Elle", "Russhal");
//using foreach loop on KeySet
for (String key : empManager.keySet()) {
System.out.println("Employee: " + key + ", Manager: " + empManager.get(key));
}
//using KeySet Iterator
Set < String > keySet = empManager.keySet();
Iterator < String > keySetIterator = keySet.iterator();
String tempKey;
while (keySetIterator.hasNext()) {
tempKey = keySetIterator.next();
System.out.println("Employee: " + tempKey + ", Manager: " + empManager.get(tempKey));
}
//using entrySet
Set < Map.Entry < String, String > > entrySet = empManager.entrySet();
for (Map.Entry < String, String > entry : entrySet) {
System.out.println("Employee: " + entry.getKey() + ", Manager: " + entry.getValue());
}
//print the values using map.values()
Collection < String > managerval=empManager.values();
for (String manager: managerval)
{
System.out.println("Manager Name:"+manager);
}
//forEach and Lambda of Java 8
//empManager.forEach((k,v)- > System.out.println("Employee : " + k + ", Manager : " + v));
}
String> al = new HashMap < ArrayList ,, String>();
ArrayList l1=new ArrayList();
ArrayList l2=new ArrayList();
al.put(l1, "l1");
al.put(l2, "l2");
System.out.println("Size="+al.size());
Output will be "Size=1", because l1.equals(l2) will return true. But suposse you add an element in l1 or l2 then the output might or might not be 1 depending on the reference of String added in the l1 and l2.
{
if(list.contains(inputStr))
return true;
return false;
}
-K Himaanshu Shuklaa..
Can we replace Hashtable with ConcurrentHashMap?
- Yes, we can replace Hashtable with ConcurrentHashMap and that's what is suggested in the Java documentation of ConcurrentHashMap.
- ConcurrentHashMap performs better than Hashtable ( or SynchronizedMap), because it only locks a portion of Map, instead of the whole Map.
- But we need to be a bit careful before replacing Hashtable with ConcurrentHashMap. Since Hashtable locks the whole Map instead of a portion of Map, compound operations like if(Hashtable.get(key) == null) or put(key, value) work in Hashtable, but not in ConcurrentHashMap. Instead of this use putIfAbsent() method of ConcurrentHashMap.
How can you Iterate over HashMap, Hashtable, or any Map in Java
public static void main(String[] args){
//create a map which contains Employee-Manager's mapping
HashMap < String, String > empManager = new HashMap < String, String > ();
empManager.put("Martin", "Russhal");
empManager.put("Andreas", "Mattrias");
empManager.put("Elle", "Russhal");
//using foreach loop on KeySet
for (String key : empManager.keySet()) {
System.out.println("Employee: " + key + ", Manager: " + empManager.get(key));
}
//using KeySet Iterator
Set < String > keySet = empManager.keySet();
Iterator < String > keySetIterator = keySet.iterator();
String tempKey;
while (keySetIterator.hasNext()) {
tempKey = keySetIterator.next();
System.out.println("Employee: " + tempKey + ", Manager: " + empManager.get(tempKey));
}
//using entrySet
Set < Map.Entry < String, String > > entrySet = empManager.entrySet();
for (Map.Entry < String, String > entry : entrySet) {
System.out.println("Employee: " + entry.getKey() + ", Manager: " + entry.getValue());
}
//print the values using map.values()
Collection < String > managerval=empManager.values();
for (String manager: managerval)
{
System.out.println("Manager Name:"+manager);
}
//forEach and Lambda of Java 8
//empManager.forEach((k,v)- > System.out.println("Employee : " + k + ", Manager : " + v));
}
What will be the output of the below program?
HashMap < ArrayList ,ArrayList
ArrayList
al.put(l1, "l1");
al.put(l2, "l2");
System.out.println("Size="+al.size());
Output will be "Size=1", because l1.equals(l2) will return true. But suposse you add an element in l1 or l2 then the output might or might not be 1 depending on the reference of String added in the l1 and l2.
Write a function, which will take an ArrayList/HashSet and an element. It will return true if the element is present in the ArrayList/HashSet, else it will return false.
public boolean isPresent(ArrayList < String > list, String inputStr){
if(list.contains(inputStr))
return true;
return false;
}
-K Himaanshu Shuklaa..
thanks you sir
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