Collections (Collection

Framework)

Sang Shin
Java Technology Architect
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
sang.shin@sun.com
www.javapassion.com
Disclaimer & Acknowledgments
• Even though Sang Shin is a full-time employee of
Sun Microsystems, the contents here are created as
his own personal endeavor and thus does not
necessarily reflect any official stance of Sun
Microsystems on any particular technology
• Acknowledgments
> The contents of this presentation was created from The Java
Tutorials in java.sun.com

2
Topics

• What is and Why Collections?

• Core Collection Interfaces
• Implementations
• Algorithms
• Custom Implementations
• Interoperability

3
What is a Collection?

What is and Why

Collection Framework?
What is a Collection?

• A “collection” object — 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
> Typically, they represent data items that form a natural group,
such as a poker hand (a collection of cards), a mail folder (a
collection of letters), or a telephone directory (a mapping of
names to phone numbers).

5
What is a Collection Framework?

• A collections framework is a unified architecture for

representing and manipulating collections
• All collections frameworks contain the following:
> Interfaces
> Implementations
> Algorithms

6
Benefits of Collection Framework

• Reduces programming effort

• Increases program speed and quality
• Allows interoperability among unrelated APIs
> The collection interfaces are the vernacular by which APIs
pass collections back and forth
• Reduce effort to learn and use new APIs
• Reduces effort to design new APIs
• Fosters software reuse
> New data structures that conform to the standard collection
interfaces are by nature reusable
7
Interfaces &
Implementations in
Collection Framework
Interfaces

• Collection interfaces are abstract data types that

represent collections
> Collection interfaces are in the form of Java interfaces
• Interfaces allow collections to be manipulated
independently of the implementation details of their
representation
> Polymorphic behavior
• In Java programming language (and other object-
oriented languages), interfaces generally form a
hierarchy
> You choose one that meets your need as a type
9
Implementations

• These are the concrete implementations of the

collection interfaces

10
Types of Implementations

• General-purpose implementations
• Special-purpose implementations
• Concurrent implementations
• Wrapper implementations
• Convenience implementations
• Abstract implementations

11
Implementations

• Implementations are the data objects used to store

collections, which implement the interfaces
• Each of the general-purpose implementations (you
will see in the following slide) provides all optional
operations contained in its interface
• Java Collections Framework also provides several
special-purpose implementations for situations that
require nonstandard performance, usage
restrictions, or other unusual behavior

12
General Purpose Implementations

13
Algorithms

• These are the methods that perform useful

computations, such as searching and sorting, on
objects that implement collection interfaces
• The algorithms are said to be polymorphic: that is,
the same method can be used on many different
implementations of the appropriate collection
interface
> In essence, algorithms are reusable functionality.

14
Core Collection
Interfaces
Core Collection Interfaces Hierarchy

16
Core Collection Interfaces

• Core collection interfaces are the foundation of the

Java Collections Framework
• Core collection interfaces form a inheritance
hierarchy among themselves
> You can create a new Collection interface from them (highly
likely you don't have to)

17
“Collection” Interface
“Collection” Interface
• The root of the collection hierarchy
• Is the least common denominator that all collection
implement
> Every collection object is a type of Collection interface
• Is used to pass collection objects around and to
manipulate them when maximum generality is
desired
> Use Collection interface as a type
• JDK doesn't provide any direct implementations of
this interface but provides implementations of more
specific subinterfaces, such as Set and List
19
“Collection” Interface (Java SE 5)
public interface Collection<E> extends Iterable<E> {
// Basic operations
int size();
boolean isEmpty();
boolean contains(Object element);
boolean add(E element); //optional
boolean remove(Object element); //optional
Iterator<E> iterator();

// Bulk operations
boolean containsAll(Collection<?> c);
boolean addAll(Collection<? extends E> c); //optional
boolean removeAll(Collection<?> c); //optional
boolean retainAll(Collection<?> c); //optional
void clear(); //optional

// Array operations
Object[] toArray();
<T> T[] toArray(T[] a);
} 20
Example: Usage “Collection”
Interface as a Type
// Create a ArrayList collection object instance and assign it
// to Collection type.
Collection c1 = new ArrayList();

// Use methods of Collection interface.

//
// Polymorphic behavior is expected. For example,
// the add() implementation of ArrayList class will be
// invoked. For example, depending on the implementation,
// duplication is allowed or not allowed.

boolean b1 = c1.isEmpty();
boolean b2 = c1.add(new Integer(1));
21
“Collection” Interface:
add() and remove()
Operations
add() and remove() methods of
Collection Interface
• The add() method is defined generally enough so
that it makes sense for collections that allow
duplicates as well as those that don't
• It guarantees that the Collection will contain the
specified element after the call completes, and
returns true if the Collection changes as a result of
the call.
> add() method of Set interface follows “no duplicate” rule

23
“Collection” Interface:
Traversing
Two Schemes of Traversing
Collections
• for-each
> The for-each construct allows you to concisely traverse a
collection or array using a for loop
for (Object o: collection)
System.out.println(o);
• Iterator
> An Iterator is an object that enables you to traverse through a
collection and to remove elements from the collection
selectively, if desired

25
Iterator Interface

public interface Iterator {

boolean hasNext();
Object next();
void remove(); //optional
}

• hasNext() method returns true if the iteration has more elements

• next() method returns the next element in the iteration
• remove() is the only safe way to modify a collection during
iteration; the behavior is unspecified if the underlying collection is
modified in any other way while the iteration is in progress

26
Use Iterator over for-each when you
need to
• Remove the current element
> The for-each construct hides the iterator, so you cannot call
remove
> Therefore, the for-each construct is not usable for filtering.
static void filter(Collection<?> c) {
for (Iterator<?> it = c.iterator(); it.hasNext(); )
if (!cond(it.next()))
it.remove();
}
• Iterate over multiple collections in parallel
27
“Collection” Interface:
Bulk Operations
Bulk Operations
• containsAll() — returns true if the target Collection contains
all of the elements in the specified Collection.
• addAll() — adds all of the elements in the specified
Collection to the target Collection.
• removeAll() — removes from the target Collection all of its
elements that are also contained in the specified Collection.
• retainAll() — removes from the target Collection all its
elements that are not also contained in the specified
Collection. That is, it retains only those elements in the
target Collection that are also contained in the specified
Collection.
• clear() — removes all elements from the Collection.
29
Example: removeAll()

• Remove all instances of a specified element, e, from

a Collection, c
> c.removeAll(Collections.singleton(e));
• Remove all of the null elements from a Collection
> c.removeAll(Collections.singleton(null));
• Collections.singleton(), which is a static factory
method that returns an immutable Set containing
only the specified element

30
“Collection” Interface:
Array Operations
Array Operations

• The toArray() method is provided as a bridge

between collections and older APIs that expect
arrays on input
• The array operations allow the contents of a
Collection to be translated into an array.

32
Example: Array Operations

• The simple form with no arguments creates a new

array of Object
> Object[] a = c.toArray();
• Suppose that c is known to contain only strings. The
following snippet dumps the contents of c into a
newly allocated array of String whose length is
identical to the number of elements in c.
> String[] a = c.toArray();

33
Set Interface &
Implementations
“Set” Interface

• A collection that cannot contain duplicate elements

• Models the mathematical set abstraction and is used
to represent sets
> cards comprising a poker hand
> courses making up a student's schedule
> the processes running on a machine
• The Set interface contains only methods inherited
from Collection and adds the restriction that
duplicate elements are prohibited

35
“Set” Interface (Java SE 5)
public interface Set<E> extends Collection<E> {
// Basic operations
int size();
boolean isEmpty();
boolean contains(Object element);
boolean add(E element); //optional
boolean remove(Object element); //optional
Iterator<E> iterator();

// Bulk operations
boolean containsAll(Collection<?> c);
boolean addAll(Collection<? extends E> c); //optional
boolean removeAll(Collection<?> c); //optional
boolean retainAll(Collection<?> c); //optional
void clear(); //optional

// Array Operations
Object[] toArray();
<T> T[] toArray(T[] a);
} 36
“equals” operation of “Set”
Interface
• Set also adds a stronger contract on the behavior of
the equals and hashCode operations, allowing Set
instances to be compared meaningfully even if their
implementation types differ
> Two Set instances are equal if they contain the same
elements

37
“SortedSet” Interface

• A Set that maintains its elements in ascending order.

Several additional operations are provided to take
advantage of the ordering
• Sorted sets are used for naturally ordered sets, such
as word lists and membership roll

38
Implementations of “Set” Interface
• HashSet
• TreeSet
• LinkedHashSet

39
HashSet
• HashSet is much faster than TreeSet (constant-
time versus log-time for most operations) but
offers no ordering guarantees
• Mostly commonly used implementation

40
Caveats of Using HashSet

• Iteration is linear in the sum of the number of entries

and the number of buckets (the capacity)
> Choosing an initial capacity that's too high can waste both
space and time
> Choosing an initial capacity that's too low wastes time by
copying the data structure each time it's forced to increase its
capacity

41
Example: Set Interface & HashSet
public class MyOwnUtilityClass {
// Note that the first parameter type is set to
// Set interface not a particular implementation
// class such as HashSet. This makes the caller of
// this method to pass instances of different
// implementations of Set interface while
// this function picks up polymorphic behavior
// depending on the actual implementation type
// of the object instance passed.
public static void checkDuplicate(Set s, String[] args){
for (int i=0; i<args.length; i++)
if (!s.add(args[i]))
System.out.println("Duplicate detected: "+args[i]);
System.out.println(s.size()+" distinct words detected: "+s);
}
} 42
Example: Set Interface & HashSet
public class Main {

public static void main(String[] args) {

Set s = new HashSet(); // Order is not guaranteed

MyOwnUtilityClass.checkDuplicate(s, args);

s = new TreeSet(); // Order according to values

MyOwnUtilityClass.checkDuplicate(s, args);

s = new LinkedHashSet(); // Order according to insertion

MyOwnUtilityClass.checkDuplicate(s, args);
}
}
43
Example: Set Interface & HashSet

The numbers are added in the following order

2
3
4
1
2
Set type = java.util.HashSet [3, 2, 4, 1]
Set type = java.util.TreeSet [1, 2, 3, 4]
Set type = java.util.LinkedHashSet [2, 3, 4, 1]

44
TreeSet
• When you need to use the operations in the
SortedSet interface, or if value-ordered iteration is
required

45
Example: Set Interface & TreeSet
public static void main(String[] args) {
Set ts = new TreeSet();
ts.add("one");
ts.add("two");
ts.add("three");
ts.add("four");
ts.add("three");
System.out.println("Members from TreeSet = " + ts);
}

Result:
Members from TreeSet = [four, one, three, two]

46
LinkedHashSet
• Implemented as a hash table with a linked list
running through it
• Provides insertion-ordered iteration (least recently
inserted to most recently) and runs nearly as fast
as HashSet.
• Spares its clients from the unspecified, generally
chaotic ordering provided by HashSet without
incurring the increased cost associated with
TreeSet

47
Example: Set Interface &
LinkedHashSet
public static void main(String[] args) {
Set ts2 = new LinkedHashSet();
ts2.add(2);
ts2.add(1);
ts2.add(3);
ts2.add(3);
System.out.println("Members from LinkedHashSet = " + ts2);
}

Result:
Members from LinkedHashSet = [2, 1, 3]
48
List Interface &
Implementations
“List” Interface

• An ordered collection (sometimes called a

sequence)
• Lists can contain duplicate elements
• The user of a List generally has precise control over
where in the list each element is inserted and can
access elements by their integer index (position)
> If you've used Vector, you're already familiar with the general
basics of List

50
Additional Operations Supported by
“List” Interface over “Collection”
• Positional access — manipulates elements based
on their numerical position in the list
• Search — searches for a specified object in the list
and returns its numerical position
• Iteration — extends Iterator semantics to take
advantage of the list's sequential nature
• Range-view — performs arbitrary range operations
on the list.

51
“List” Interface
public interface List<E> extends Collection<E> {
// Positional access
E get(int index);
E set(int index, E element); //optional
boolean add(E element); //optional
void add(int index, E element); //optional
E remove(int index); //optional
boolean addAll(int index,
Collection<? extends E> c); //optional

// Search
int indexOf(Object o);
int lastIndexOf(Object o);

// Iteration
ListIterator<E> listIterator();
ListIterator<E> listIterator(int index);

// Range-view
List<E> subList(int from, int to);
52
Implementations of “List” Interface

• ArrayList
> Offers constant-time positional access
> Fast
> Think of ArrayList as Vector without the synchronization
overhead
> Most commonly used implementation
• LinkedList
> Use it you frequently add elements to the beginning of the List
or iterate over the List to delete elements from its interior

53
Map Interface &
Implementations
“Map” Interface

• Handles key/value pairs

• A Map cannot contain duplicate keys; each key can
map to at most one value
> If you've used Hashtable, you're already familiar with the
basics of Map.

55
“Map” Interface (Java SE 5)
public interface Map<K,V> {
// Basic operations
V put(K key, V value);
V get(Object key);
V remove(Object key);
boolean containsKey(Object key);
boolean containsValue(Object value);
int size();
boolean isEmpty();

// Bulk operations
void putAll(Map<? extends K, ? extends V> m);
void clear();

// Collection Views
public Set<K> keySet();
public Collection<V> values();
public Set<Map.Entry<K,V>> entrySet();

// Interface for entrySet elements

public interface Entry {
K getKey();
V getValue();
V setValue(V value); 56
“SortedMap” Interface

• A Map that maintains its mappings in ascending key

order
> This is the Map analog of SortedSet
• Sorted maps are used for naturally ordered
collections of key/value pairs, such as dictionaries
and telephone directories

57
Implementations of “Map” Interface

• HashMap
> Use it you want maximum speed and don't care about
iteration order
> Most commonly used implementation
• TreeMap
> Use it when you need SortedMap operations or key-ordered
Collection-view iteration
• LinkedHashMap
> Use if you want near-HashMap performance and insertion-
order iteration

58
Queue Interface &
Implementations
“Queue” Interface

• A collection used to hold multiple elements prior to

processing
• Besides basic Collection operations, a Queue
provides additional insertion, extraction, and
inspection operations
• Typically, but do not necessarily, order elements in a
FIFO (first-in, first-out) manner

60
Implementations of Queue Interface

• General purpose Queue implementations

> LinkedList implements the Queue interface, providing FIFO
queue operations for add, poll, and so on
> PriorityQueue class is a priority queue based on the heap
data structure
> This queue orders elements according to an order specified at
construction time, which can be the elements' natural ordering
or the ordering imposed by an explicit Comparator.
• Concurrent Queue implementations

61
Convenience
Implementations
Collections Class

• Provides methods to return the empty Set, List, and

Map — emptySet, emptyList, and emptyMap
> The main use of these constants is as input to methods that
take a Collection of values when you don't want to provide
any values at all
> tourist.declarePurchases(Collections.emptySet());
• Provides methods for sorting and shuffling
> Collections.sort(l);
> Collections.shuffle(l);

63
Abstract Classes
Abstract Classes

• Includes abstract implementations

> AbstractCollection
> AbstractSet
> AbstractList
> AbstractSequentialList
> AbstractMap
• To aid in custom implementations
> Reduces code you have to write

65
Algorithms
Algorithms

• Sorting
• Shuffling
• Routine data manipulation
• Searching
• Composition
• Find extreme values

67
Algorithms

• Provided as static methods of Collections class

• The first argument is the collection on which the
operation is to be performed
• The majority of the algorithms provided by the Java
platform operate on List instances, but a few of them
operate on arbitrary Collection instances

68
Sorting

• The sort algorithm reorders a List so that its

elements are in ascending order according to an
ordering relationship
• Two forms of the operations
> takes a List and sorts it according to its elements' natural
ordering
> takes a Comparator in addition to a List and sorts the
elements with the Comparator

69
Natural Ordering
• The type of the elements in a List already implements
Comparable interface
• Examples
> If the List consists of String elements, it will be sorted into
alphabetical order
> If it consists of Date elements, it will be sorted into chronological
order
> String and Date both implement the Comparable interface.
Comparable implementations provide a natural ordering for a class,
which allows objects of that class to be sorted automatically
• If you try to sort a list, the elements of which do not
implement Comparable, Collections.sort(list) will throw a
ClassCastException.
70
Sorting by Natural Order of List

// Set up test data

String n[] = {
new String("John"),
new String("Karl"),
new String("Groucho"),
new String("Oscar")
};
// Create a List from an array
List l = Arrays.asList(n);
// Perform the sorting operation
Collections.sort(l);

71
Sorting by Comparator Interface

• A comparison function, which imposes a total

ordering on some collection of objects
• Comparators can be passed to a sort method (such
as Collections.sort or Arrays.sort) to allow precise
control over the sort order
• Comparators can also be used to control the order
of certain data structures (such as sorted sets or
sorted maps), or to provide an ordering for
collections of objects that don't have a natural
ordering

72
Sorting by Natural Order of List

// Set up test data

ArrayList u2 = new ArrayList();
u2.add("Beautiful Day");
u2.add("Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of");
u2.add("Elevation");
u2.add("Walk On");
u2.add("Kite");
u2.add("In A Little While");
u2.add("Wild Honey");
u2.add("Peace On Earth");
u2.add("When I Look At The World");
u2.add("New York");
u2.add("Grace");
Comparator comp = Comparators.stringComparator();
Collections.sort(u2, comp);
System.out.println(u2);
73
Shuffling

• The shuffle algorithm does the opposite of what sort

does, destroying any trace of order that may have
been present in a List
> That is, this algorithm reorders the List based on input from a
source of randomness such that all possible permutations
occur with equal likelihood, assuming a fair source of
randomness
• Useful in implementing games of chance
> could be used to shuffle a List of Card objects representing a
deck
> generating test cases

74
Routine Data Manipulation
• The Collections class provides five algorithms for doing
routine data manipulation on List objects
> reverse — reverses the order of the elements in a List.
> fill — overwrites every element in a List with the specified value.
This operation is useful for reinitializing a List.
> copy — takes two arguments, a destination List and a source List,
and copies the elements of the source into the destination,
overwriting its contents. The destination List must be at least as
long as the source. If it is longer, the remaining elements in the
destination List are unaffected.
> swap — swaps the elements at the specified positions in a List.
> addAll — adds all the specified elements to a Collection. The
elements to be added may be specified individually or as an array.
75
Searching

• The Collections class has binarySearch() method for

searching a specified element in a sorted List
// Set up testing data
String name[] = {
new String("Sang"),
new String("Shin"),
new String("Boston"),
new String("Passion"),
new String("Shin"),
};
List l = Arrays.asList(name);
int position = Collections.binarySearch(l, "Boston");
System.out.println("Position of the searched item = " + position);
76
Composition

• Collections.frequency(l) — counts the number of

times the specified element occurs in the specified
collection
• Collections.disjoint(l1, l2) — determines whether two
Collections are disjoint; that is, whether they contain
no elements in commonThe Collections class has
binarySearch() method for searching a specified
element in a sorted List

77
Collection Framework

Sang Shin
Java Technology Architect
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
sang.shin@sun.com
www.javapassion.com