Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction
Java is a popular programming language, and it has its own collection framework that includes several data structures. One such data structure is the ordered map, which is also known as a sorted map. In this article, we will explore the ordered map in Java in detail.What is an Ordered Map?
An ordered map is a data structure that stores key-value pairs in a specific order. The order of the pairs is determined by the keys. The keys are sorted in ascending order by default. The ordered map interface is implemented by two classes in Java – TreeMap and ConcurrentSkipListMap.How Does TreeMap Work?
TreeMap is a red-black tree-based implementation of the ordered map interface. The keys in TreeMap are stored in a sorted order. When a new key-value pair is inserted, TreeMap checks the key's value and inserts it in the correct position in the tree. If the key already exists, the old value is replaced by the new value.How Does ConcurrentSkipListMap Work?
ConcurrentSkipListMap is a concurrent implementation of the ordered map interface. It uses a skip list data structure to store the key-value pairs in a sorted order. Unlike TreeMap, ConcurrentSkipListMap allows concurrent access to the map. It is thread-safe and can be used in multi-threaded applications.Advantages of Ordered Map
The following are some advantages of using an ordered map in Java:- It maintains the order of the keys, making it easier to iterate over the map in a specific order.
- It provides efficient search operations by using binary search algorithms to find the keys.
- It allows range queries, where we can retrieve a subset of the keys that fall within a specific range.