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Understanding Ordered Map In Java – A Complete Guide

Written by Pauline Lafleur Mar 24, 2022 · 3 min read
Understanding Ordered Map In Java – A Complete Guide

Table of Contents

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sessions and code snippets.

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.

Code Example: Using TreeMap to Implement an Ordered Map

Here is an example of using TreeMap to implement an ordered map in Java: ```java import java.util.*; public class OrderedMapExample { public static void main(String[] args) { TreeMap orderedMap = new TreeMap<>(); orderedMap.put("John", 25); orderedMap.put("Alice", 30); orderedMap.put("Bob", 20); System.out.println("Ordered Map: " + orderedMap); System.out.println("First Key: " + orderedMap.firstKey()); System.out.println("Last Key: " + orderedMap.lastKey()); } } ```

Question & Answer

Q. What happens if we try to insert a null key in TreeMap?

If we try to insert a null key in TreeMap, it will throw a NullPointerException.

Q. How can we iterate over the keys in a TreeMap?

We can use the keySet() method of TreeMap to get a set of all the keys in the map. We can then iterate over this set using a for-each loop. ```java TreeMap orderedMap = new TreeMap<>(); for(String key : orderedMap.keySet()) { System.out.println(key + " : " + orderedMap.get(key)); } ```

Conclusion

In this article, we have explored the ordered map in Java. We learned that it is a data structure that stores key-value pairs in a specific order. We also looked at two implementations of the ordered map interface in Java – TreeMap and ConcurrentSkipListMap. We discussed the advantages of using an ordered map and provided a code example of using TreeMap to implement an ordered map. With the information provided in this article, you should be able to use the ordered map in your Java applications.
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