Collections and Iterators. Giuseppe Narzisi V Spring 2009

Transcription

1 Collections and Iterators Giuseppe Narzisi V Spring 2009

2 Definition Defini9on of Collec9on: Group of objects, which are also called elements May allow duplicates and requires no specific ordering Collec&on interface Root of all collec9on interfaces

3 Benefits of Java Collection Framework Reduces programming effort You don't need to create your own data structures and algorithms Increases program speed and quality Collec9ons framework provides high performance, high quality implementa9ons of useful data structures and algorithms Reduces effort to learn and use new APIs Reduces effort to design new APIs Foster souware reuse

4 The Java Collections Framework The classes in the Java Collec9ons Framework fall into three general categories: Lists. A list is an ordered collec9on of values that allows the client to add and remove elements. As you would expect, the ArrayList class falls into this category. Sets. A set is an unordered collec9on of values in which a par9cular object can appear at most once. Maps. A map implements an associa9on between keys and values. The HashMap class is in this category. The next slide shows the Java class hierarchy for the first two categories, which together are called collec%ons.

5 The Collection Hierarchy The following diagram shows the por9on of the Java Collec9ons Framework that implements the Collection interface. The dozed lines specify that a class implements a par9cular interface. «interface» Collection «interface» List AbstractCollection «interface» Set AbstractList AbstractSet «interface» SortedSet ArrayList LinkedList HashSet TreeSet

6 ArrayList vs. LinkedList Two classes in the Java Collec9ons Framework that implement the List interface: ArrayList and LinkedList. Because these classes implement the same interface, it is generally possible to subs9tute one for the other. These classes have the same effect, however, they do not have the same performance characteris9cs. The ArrayList class is more efficient when selec9ng a par9cular element or searching for an element in a sorted array. The LinkedList class is more efficient when adding or removing elements from a large list. Choosing which list implementa9on to use is therefore a mazer of evalua9ng the performance tradeoffs.

7 Iteration in Collections One of the most useful opera9ons for any collec9on is the ability to run through each of the elements in a loop. This process is called itera%on. The java.util.iterator<e> interface provides for one-way traversal The java.util.listiterator<e> provides two-way traversal In older versions of Java, the programming pazern for using an iterator looks like this: Iterator iterator = collec&on.elements(); while (iterator.hasnext()) { type element = (type) iterator.next();... statements that process this par&cular element... } Java Standard Edi9on 5.0 allows you to simplify this code to for (type element : collec&on) {... statements that process this par&cular element... }

8 Iteration Order List: the order in which itera9on proceeds through the elements of the list is defined by the underlying ordering of the list. The element at index 0 comes first, followed by the other elements in order. Set: the ordering of itera9on is more difficult to specify because a set is, by defini9on, an unordered collec9on. A set that implements only the Set interface is free to deliver up elements in any order. If a Set also implements the SortedSet interface (as the TreeSet class does), the iterator is forced to deliver elements that appear in ascending order according to the compareto method for that class.

9 The Collections Toolbox The Collections class (not the same as the Collection interface) exports several sta9c methods that operate on lists, the most important of which appear in the following table: binarysearch(list, key) sort(list) min(list) max(list) reverse(list) shuffle(list) swap(list, p 1, p 2 ) replaceall(list, x 1, x 2 ) Finds key in a sorted list using binary search. Sorts a list into ascending order. Returns the smallest value in a list. Returns the largest value in a list. Reverses the order of elements in a list. Randomly rearranges the elements in a list. Exchanges the elements at index posi9ons p 1 and p 2. Replaces all elements matching x 1 with x 2. The java.util package exports a similar Arrays class that provides the same basic opera9ons for any array.