Collection Interfaces - The primary means by which
collections are manipulated.
Collection
- A group of objects. No assumptions are made about the order of
the collection (if any), or whether it may contain duplicate elements.
Set
- The familiar set abstraction. No duplicate elements permitted. May
or may not be ordered. Extends the Collection interface.
List
- Ordered collection, also known as a sequence. Duplicates are
generally permitted. Allows positional access. Extends the
Collection interface.
Queue -
A collection designed for holding elements prior to processing.
Besides basic Collection operations, queues provide
additional insertion, extraction, and inspection operations.
Deque
- A double ended queue, supporting element insertion and
removal at both ends. Extends the Queue interface.
Map
- A mapping from keys to values. Each key can map to at most one value.
SortedSet
- A set whose elements are automatically sorted, either in their
natural ordering (see the Comparable
interface), or by a Comparator
object provided when a SortedSet instance is created.
Extends the Set interface.
SortedMap
- A map whose mappings are automatically sorted by key, either in the
keys' natural ordering or by a comparator provided when a
SortedMap instance is created. Extends the Map
interface.
NavigableSet
- A SortedSet extended with navigation methods reporting
closest matches for given search targets. A NavigableSet may be
accessed and traversed in either ascending or descending order.
NavigableMap
- A SortedMap extended with navigation methods returning the
closest matches for given search targets. A NavigableMap may
be accessed and traversed in either ascending or descending key order.
BlockingQueue
- A Queue with operations that wait for the queue to become
non-empty when retrieving an element, and that wait for space to become
available in the queue when storing an element. (This interface is part of
java.util.concurrent.)
BlockingDeque
- A Deque with operations that wait for the deque to become
non-empty when retrieving an element, and wait for space to become
available in the deque when storing an element. Extends both the
Deque and BlockingQueue interfaces.
(This interface is part of java.util.concurrent.)
ConcurrentMap
- A Map with atomic putIfAbsent, remove, and
replace methods.
(This interface is part of java.util.concurrent.)
General-Purpose Implementations - The primary
implementations of the collection interfaces.
HashSet - Hash table implementation of the Set interface.
The best all-around implementation of the Set interface.
TreeSet
- Red-black tree implementation of the NavigableSet interface.
LinkedHashSet
- Hash table and linked list implementation of the Set interface.
An insertion-ordered Set implementation that runs nearly as fast as
HashSet.
ArrayList -
Resizable-array implementation of the List interface.
(Essentially an unsynchronized Vector.) The best all-around
implementation of the List interface.
ArrayDeque -
Efficient resizable-array implementation of the Deque interface.
LinkedList
- Doubly-linked list implementation of the List interface.
May provide better performance than the ArrayList
implementation if elements are frequently inserted or deleted within
the list. Also implements the Deque interface. When
accessed via the Queue interface, LinkedList
behaves as a FIFO queue.
PriorityQueue -
Heap implementation of an unbounded priority queue.
HashMap - Hash
table implementation of the Map interface. (Essentially an
unsynchronized Hashtable that supports null keys and
values.) The best all-around implementation of the Map
interface.
TreeMap
Red-black tree implementation of the NavigableMap interface.
LinkedHashMap
- Hash table and linked list implementation of the Map interface.
An insertion-ordered Map implementation that runs nearly as fast as
HashMap. Also useful for building caches (see
removeEldestEntry(Map.Entry)
).
Wrapper Implementations - Functionality-enhancing
implementations for use with other implementations. Accessed solely
through static factory methods.
Collections.unmodifiableInterface
- Return an unmodifiable view of a specified collection that throws an
UnsupportedOperationException if the user attempts to modify
it.
Collections.synchronizedInterface - Return
a synchronized collection that is backed by the specified (typically
unsynchronized) collection. As long as all accesses to the backing
collection are through the returned collection, thread-safety is
guaranteed.
Collections.checkedInterface
- Return a dynamically typesafe view of the specified collection, which
throws a ClassCastException if a client attempts to add an element of
the wrong type. The generics mechanism in the language provides compile-time
(static) type checking, but it is possible to defeat this mechanism.
Dynamically typesafe views eliminate this possibility entirely.
Convenience Implementations - High-performance
"mini-implementations" of the collection interfaces.
Arrays.asList
- Allows an array to be viewed as a list.
singleton,
singletonList,
and singletonMap - Returns an immutable "singleton" set, list, or map, containing only the specified object (or key-value mapping).
nCopies
- Returns an immutable list consisting of n copies of a specified object.
Legacy Implementations - Older collection classes have
been retrofitted to implement the collection interfaces.
Vector
- Synchronized resizable-array implementation of the List interface
with additional "legacy methods."
Hashtable
- Synchronized hash table implementation of the Map interface
that does not allow null keys or values, with additional
"legacy methods."
Special Purpose Implementations
WeakHashMap -
An implementation of the Map interface that stores only weak
references to its keys. Storing only weak references allows
key-value pairs to be garbage-collected when the key is no longer
referenced outside of the WeakHashMap. This class provides
the easiest way to harness the power of weak references. It is useful
for implementing "registry-like" data structures, where the utility of
an entry vanishes when its key is no longer reachable by any thread.
IdentityHashMap
- Identity-based Map implementation based on a hash table. This class is useful
for topology-preserving object graph transformations (such as serialization or
deep-copying). To perform such transformations, you need to maintain an
identity-based "node table" that keeps track of which objects have already
been seen. Identity-based maps are also used to maintain
object-to-meta-information mappings in dynamic debuggers and similar systems.
Finally, identity-based maps are useful in thwarting "spoof attacks" resulting
from intentionally perverse equals methods. (IdentityHashMap never
invokes the equals method on its keys.) An added benefit of this
implementation is that it is fast.
CopyOnWriteArrayList
- a List implementation backed by an copy-on-write array. All
mutative operations (such as add, set, and remove)
are implemented by making a new copy of the array. No synchronization is
necessary, even during iteration, and iterators are guaranteed never to throw
ConcurrentModificationException. This implementation is well-suited
to maintaining event-handler lists (where change is infrequent, and traversal
is frequent and potentially time-consuming).
CopyOnWriteArraySet
- A Set implementation backed by a copy-on-write array. This
implementation is similar in nature to CopyOnWriteArrayList. Unlike
most Set implementations, the add, remove,
and contains methods require time proportional to the size of the
set. This implementation is well-suited to maintaining event-handler lists
that must prevent duplicates.
EnumSet
- a high-performance Set implementation backed by a bit-vector. All
elements of each EnumSet instance must be elements of a single enum
type.
EnumMap
- a high-performance Map implementation backed by an array. All
keys in each EnumMap instance must be elements of a single enum
type.
Concurrent Implementations - These implementations are
part of java.util.concurrent.
ConcurrentLinkedQueue
- An unbounded FIFO (first-in first-out) queue based on linked nodes.
LinkedBlockingQueue
- An optionally bounded FIFO blocking queue backed by linked nodes.
PriorityBlockingQueue
- An unbounded blocking priority queue backed by a priority heap.
DelayQueue
- A time-based scheduling queue backed by a priority heap.
SynchronousQueue
- A simple rendezvous mechanism utilizing the BlockingQueue interface.
LinkedBlockingDeque
- An optionally bounded FIFO blocking deque backed by linked nodes.
ConcurrentHashMap
- A highly concurrent, high-performance ConcurrentMap implementation based on a hash table. This implementation never blocks when performing retrievals and allows the client to select the concurrency level for updates. It is intended as a drop-in replacement for Hashtable: in addition to implementing ConcurrentMap, it supports all of the "legacy" methods peculiar to Hashtable.
Algorithms
- The
Collections class contains these useful static methods:
sort(List) - Sorts a list using a merge sort
algorithm, which provides average-case performance comparable to a
high-quality quicksort, guaranteed O(n*log n) performance (unlike quicksort),
and stability (unlike quicksort). (A stable sort is one that does
not reorder equal elements.)
newSetFromMap(Map)
- Creates a general purpose Set implementation from a general
purpose Map implementation.
asLifoQueue(Deque)
- Returns a view of a Deque as a Last-in-first-out (Lifo) Queue.
Infrastructure
Iterators - Similar to the familiar
Enumeration interface,
but more powerful, and with improved method names.
Iterator
- In addition to the functionality of the Enumeration
interface, allows the user to remove elements from the backing
collection with well defined, useful semantics.
ListIterator
- Iterator for use with lists. In addition to the functionality of
the Iterator interface, supports bi-directional iteration,
element replacement, element insertion and index retrieval.
Ordering
Comparable
- Imparts a natural ordering to classes that implement it. The
natural ordering may be used to sort a list or maintain order in a
sorted set or map. Many classes have been retrofitted to implement
this interface.
Comparator
- Represents an order relation, which may be used to sort a list or
maintain order in a sorted set or map. Can override a type's natural
ordering, or order objects of a type that does not implement the
Comparable interface.
ConcurrentModificationException - Thrown by
iterators and list iterators if the backing collection is modified
unexpectedly while the iteration is in progress. Also thrown by
sublist views of lists if the backing list is modified
unexpectedly.
Performance
RandomAccess
- Marker interface that allows List implementations to indicate that
they support fast (generally constant time) random access. This allows
generic algorithms to alter their behavior to provide good performance when
applied to either random or sequential access lists.
Array Utilities
Arrays
- Contains static methods to sort, search, compare, hash, copy, resize, convert to
String, and fill arrays of primitives and Objects.
