Java, Theory

Java. Java Collections Framework. General concepts

Java Collections Framework. General concepts

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1. Package java.util. Collections overview

The java.util package contains a wide range of tools that provide powerful functionality for developing programs in the Java language. One of these features is the management and organization of work with sets (groups) of objects, which are called collections. Collections have been introduced in the Java language since J2SE 1.2. Collections form a so-called framework, called the Java Collection Framework, which is a complex hierarchy of classes and interfaces. The collections framework implements a set of standard operations on known types of object groups, which include:

  • queue;
  • set;
  • list;
  • array;
  • hash table;
  • tree.

The main reasons (benefits) for developing a collections framework are:

  • avoiding “manual” programming of access to organized data and the use of ready-made solutions;
  • ensuring high (maximum) performance when working with large groups of data;
  • providing a single management method for all datasets;
  • if necessary, providing a convenient mechanism for expanding collections and / or adapting them through the use of a set of standard interfaces;
  • ease of creating your own collections based on the use of an existing framework;
  • providing integration with basic data structures like arrays.

The entire package for working with collections includes the following content elements:

  • interfaces that provide the ability to expand existing functionality at your discretion;
  • classes – contain tools for organizing work with stacks, queues, arrays, etc.;
  • algorithms – a set of static methods that implement standard operations on collections (sorting, searching, etc.);
  • iterators – provide the only standardized way to access the elements of a collection one by one.

Starting with JDK 5, the following innovations have been introduced to the collection mechanism:

  • support for generalizations (all collections are generalized);
  • automatic packing and unpacking;
  • organization of the for loop in the style of for each. This means that all classes in the collection framework support the Iterable interface.

Support for generics allowed for type safety in collections. Generics allow you to explicitly specify the type of data stored in a collection. This avoids subtle execution errors.

Collections can only store references, not values of primitive types. This means that to create a collection of integers, you must specify the wrapper type Integer instead of the primitive type int. Otherwise, the compiler will throw an error. At the same time, packing and auto-unpacking from int to Integer and vice versa is performed automatically. You can read more about the features of autoboxing and unboxing in Java here.

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2. Standard interfaces. Overview

Collections are extended and adapted by implementing the usual interfaces that are included in the Java Collection Framework. These interfaces include:

  • Collection is the base interface located at the top of the collection hierarchy;
  • Queue is an implementation of a one-way queue in which elements are removed only from the beginning of the queue. This interface extends the Collection interface;
  • Deque – extends the Queue interface to organize a two-way queue;
  • List – extends the Collection interface to manage sequences (lists of objects);
  • Set – implements a set by extending the Collection interface. There are no identical elements in the set (each element occurs only 1 time);
  • SortedSet – extends the Set interface by adding sorting. It turns out a sorted set;
  • NavigableSet – extends the SortedSet interface. Ensures that elements are retrieved by the first match.

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3. Collection classes. Overview

The Java Collection Framework implements a number of standard collection classes that implement collection interfaces (see section 2.). Standard collection classes are divided into 2 groups:

  • classes that represent full implementations of the corresponding interfaces. These classes can be used directly;
  • classes that are templates. These classes are the basis for creating concrete collections.

Although collection classes are not synchronized, further synchronization of these classes is allowed.

The list of standard collection classes is as follows:

  • AbstractCollection – provides the implementation of most of the Collection interface;
  • AbstractList – inherited from the AbstractCollection class and implements most of the List interface;
  • AbstractQueue – inherited from the AbstractCollection class and implements part of the Queue interface;
  • AbstractSequentalList – inherits (extends) the AbstractList class for use in collections that use sequences when accessing elements;
  • LinkedList – inherited from the AbstractSequentialList class and implements a linked list;
  • ArrayList is a class inherited from AbstractList and implements a dynamic array;
  • ArrayDeque – inherited from AbstractCollection and implements the Deque interface;
  • AbstractSet – inherited from the AbstractCollection class and implements most of the Set interface;
  • EnumSet – inherited from the AbstractSet class for use together with elements of the enum type;
  • HashSet – inherited from AbstractSet class. This class implements the so-called hash tables, the elements of which are key:value pairs (key:value);
  • LinkedHashSet – a class inherited from HashSet and characterized by the fact that the elements are entered in a certain order;
  • PriorityQueue – inherited from the AbstractQueue class and implements a priority queue;
  • TreeSet – inherited from the AbstractSet class. This class implements a set stored as a tree structure.

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4. Algorithms

The algorithms are defined in the Collections class through static methods and are designed to operate on collections. Since algorithms are static methods, they are available to all collection classes, that is, they are common for use.

The following is a list of algorithms that can be applied to collections:

  • addAll – inserts the specified elements into the given collection;
  • asLifoQueue – converts the collection to a stack;
  • binarySearch – implements a search for a value in a given list;
  • checkedCollection, checkedList, checkedMap, checkedNavigableMap, checkedNavigableSet, checkedQueue, checkedSet, checkedSortedMap, checkedSortedSet – return a dynamically typed display representation for lists, display maps;
  • copy – copies elements from one list to another;
  • disjoint – compares elements of two collections;
  • emptyEnumeration – returns an empty enumeration;
  • emptyIterator – returns an empty iterator;
  • emptyList, emptyListIterator – returns an empty list and an empty list iterator;
  • emptyMap – returns an empty mapping of the Map type;
  • emptyNavigableMap – returns an immutable empty mapping of the type derived from the NavigableMap interface;
  • emptySet – returns an immutable empty set;
  • emptyNavigableSet – returns an immutable empty set of NavigableSet type;
  • emptySortedMap, emptySortedSet – return an immutable empty mapping of the type obtained from the SortedMap and SortedSet interfaces;
  • enumeration – returns an enumeration of elements based on the given collection;
  • fill – fills the specified list with the value of the object;
  • frequency – counts the number of occurrences of the given object in the given collection;
  • indexOfSubList – returns the position of the first occurrence of the given sublist in the list;
  • lastIndexOfSubList – returns the position of the last occurrence of the given sublist in the list;
  • list – returns an array of type ArrayList based on the given enumeration;
  • max – returns the maximum element from the given collection;
  • min – returns the minimum element in the collection;
  • newSetFromMap—returns the set that is formed based on the given mapping;
  • nCopies—returns a list containing the specified number of copies of the specified object;
  • replaceAll – replaces all occurrences of the specified element with a new value in the specified list;
  • reverse – reverses the specified list;
  • reverseOrder—returns the comparator inverse to the specified one;
  • rotate – implements the shift of the given list by the specified number of positions;
  • shuffle – implements shuffling (randomly) of elements of a given list;
  • singleton – returns the specified object as an immutable set;
  • singletonList – returns the specified object as an immutable list;
  • singletonMap – converts a key:value pair into a mapping;
  • sort – sorts the elements of the given list;
  • swap – swaps the elements of the given list;
  • synchronizedCollection, synchronizedList, synchronizedMap, synchronizedNavigableMap, synchronizedNavigableSet, synchronizedSet, synchronizedSortedMap, synchronizedSortedSet – return a synchronized sequence that is thread safe. Collections, lists, mappings, sets are processed;
  • unmodifialbleCollection, unmodifiableList, unmodifiableMap, unmodifiableNavigableSet, unmodifiableSet, unmodifiableSortedMap, unmodifiableSortedSet – return an immutable sequence based on the given sequence. Implementations for collections, lists, mappings, sets are considered.

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5. Iterators

Iterators are special classes that implement interfaces for standardized access to individual elements of a collection. Iterators provide a method to iterate over the contents of collections. Any iterator is a class object that implements one of two interfaces:

  • Iterator – provides the organization of a loop for iterating over a collection with access to the elements of this collection;
  • ListIterator – inherited from the Iterator interface and implements a two-way list traversal with element access.

The declaration of the Iterator and ListIterator interfaces is

interface Iterator<E>
interface ListIterator<E>

here

  • E – the type of objects that are iterated over.

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Related topics

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