Java collections
In this chapter we will deal with collections. Java provides specialized classes for data storage and retrieval. In one of the previous chapters, we have described arrays. Collections are enhancement to the arrays.
Java 5 introduced generic collections. The generic collections are more flexible and they are the preferred way to work with data. Generic collections enhance code reuse, type safety, and performance.
There are many classes in the collection framework. Some of them, like ArrayBlockingQueue or IdentityHashMap, are specialized containers used in specific situations. We will mention a few generic purpose containers.
Java ArrayList
ArrayList is a dynamic, resizable array. It provides random access to its elements. Random access means that we can grab any element in constant time. ArrayList automatically expands as data is added. Unlike arrays, an ArrayList can hold data of multiple data types. Elements in the ArrayList are accessed via an integer index. Indexes are zero based. Indexing of elements and insertion and deletion at the end of the ArrayList takes constant time.
Inserting or deleting an element in the middle of the dynamic array is more costly. It requires shifting all the latter elements over. The process takes linear time.
You can find out more about Java ArrayList in Java ArrayList tutorial.
package com.zetcode;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;
public class ArrayListSimpleEx {
public static void main(String[] args) {
List<String> distros = new ArrayList<String>();
distros.add("Manjaro");
distros.add("Xubuntu");
distros.add("Fedora");
distros.add("elementary");
for (String distro : distros) {
System.out.println(distro);
}
List<String> capitals = Arrays.asList("Prague", "Bratislava", "Warsaw",
"Budapest", "Washington");
for (String capital : capitals) {
System.out.println(capital);
}
}
}The example creates two lists and prints their contents.
import java.util.ArrayList; import java.util.Arrays; import java.util.List;
The necessary classes are located in the java.util package.
List<String> distros = new ArrayList<String>();
A new ArrayList is created. The list can contain strings. The type that a list can contain is given between the diamond brackets.
distros.add("Manjaro");
distros.add("Xubuntu");
distros.add("Fedora");
distros.add("elementary");With the add() method, we add four entries into the list.
for (String distro : distros) {
System.out.println(distro);
}We use the enhanced for loop to traverse the list.
List<String> capitals = Arrays.asList("Prague", "Bratislava", "Warsaw",
"Budapest", "Washington");We can use the Arrays.asList() method to initialize a list.
An ArrayList can contain multiple data types.
package com.zetcode;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
class Base { }
public class ArrayListMultipleEx {
public static void main(String[] args) {
List da = new ArrayList();
da.add("Java");
da.add(3.5);
da.add(55);
da.add(new Base());
for (Object el : da) {
System.out.println(el);
}
}
}The example creates an ArrayList collection. It contains various data types.
import java.util.ArrayList;
From the java.util package, we import the ArrayList class.
List da = new ArrayList();
An ArrayList collection is created.
da.add("Java");
da.add(3.5);
da.add(55);
da.add(new Base());We add four elements to the array with the add() method.
for (Object el : da) {
System.out.println(el);
}We iterate through the array list and print its elements to the console.
$ java com.zetcode.ArrayListMultipleEx Java 3.5 55 com.zetcode.Base@1535ac
Here we can see the output of the com.zetcode.ArrayListMultipleEx.
The next example will present some ArrayList methods.
package com.zetcode;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.List;
public class ArrayListMethodsEx {
public static void main(String[] args) {
List<String> names = new ArrayList<String>();
names.add("Jane");
names.add("Thomas");
names.add("Robin");
names.add("David");
names.add("Becky");
System.out.println(names);
names.set(1, "Tom");
System.out.println(names);
System.out.format("There are %d elements in the collection%n",
names.size());
names.remove(1);
System.out.format("There are %d elements in the collection%n",
names.size());
System.out.println(names.get(3));
System.out.println("************");
Iterator<String> it = names.iterator();
while (it.hasNext()) {
System.out.println(it.next());
}
}
}In the example we present some useful methods of the ArrayList container.
List<String> names = new ArrayList<String>();
A generic ArrayList is created. We restrict the data type of elements to String data type. This is done by writing the data type between the <> characters.
names.add("Jane");
names.add("Thomas");
names.add("Robin");
names.add("David");
names.add("Becky");We add five string elements to the array list.
System.out.println(names);
Putting the container as a parameter to the println() method will call the container's toString() method. It transforms the collection into a string.
names.set(1, "Tom");
The set() method replaces the element at the specified index with the given element. "Thomas" is replaced with "Tom".
System.out.format("There are %d elements in the collection%n",
names.size());The size of the ArrayList is determined by the size() method.
names.remove(1);
We remove the second element from the collection. The parameter is the index to the collection.
System.out.println(names.get(3));
The get() method retrieves the fourth element of the container.
Iterator<String> it = names.iterator();
while (it.hasNext()) {
System.out.println(it.next());
}We go through the container using the Iterator object. The hasNext() method checks if there are some elements left and the next() method retrieves the next element in the iteration.
$ java com.zetcode.ArrayListMethodsEx [Jane, Thomas, Robin, David, Becky] [Jane, Tom, Robin, David, Becky] There are 5 elements in the collection There are 4 elements in the collection Becky ************ Jane Robin David Becky
This is a sample output of the com.zetcode.ArrayListMethodsEx example.
In the next example, we continue presenting methods of ArrayList.
package com.zetcode;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
public class ArrayListMethodsEx2 {
public static void main(String[] args) {
List<String> names = new ArrayList<>();
names.add("Jane");
names.add(0, "Thomas");
names.add(1, "Robin");
names.add("David");
names.add("Becky");
System.out.println(names);
System.out.println(names.isEmpty());
System.out.println(names.contains("Jane"));
System.out.println(names.contains("Robert"));
System.out.println(names.indexOf("Jane"));
System.out.println(names.subList(1, 4));
names.clear();
System.out.println(names.isEmpty());
System.out.println(names);
}
}We show another five methods that can be used to work with ArrayLists.
List<String> names = new ArrayList<>();
Since Java 7 it is possible to omit the explicit type arguments in constructor calls to generic classes. The compiler infers the parameter types for constructors of generic classes.
names.add("Jane");
names.add(0, "Thomas");The add() method adds a new item to the container. The overloaded second option specifies the index where the item will be placed. In the end, the "Thomas" string is located before the "Jane" string.
System.out.println(names.isEmpty());
The empty() method checks if the container is empty. The line returns false. At this moment, we have five strings in the container.
System.out.println(names.contains("Jane"));The contains() method determines if the specified element is present in the container.
System.out.println(names.indexOf("Jane"));The indexOf() method returns the index of the first occurrence of the specified element, or -1 if the list does not contain the element.
System.out.println(names.subList(1, 4));
The subList() method returns a slice of the list between the specified indexes. The element at the first index is included in the slice, the element at the second index is not.
names.clear();
The clear() method removes all elements from the container.
$ java com.zetcode.ArrayListMethodsEx2 [Thomas, Robin, Jane, David, Becky] false true false 2 [Robin, Jane, David] true []
This is the output of the com.zetcode.ArrayListMethodsEx2.
We can add other lists into a list.
package com.zetcode;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
public class ListOfLists {
public static void main(String[] args) {
List<Integer> l1 = new ArrayList<>();
l1.add(1);
l1.add(2);
l1.add(3);
List<Integer> l2 = new ArrayList<>();
l2.add(4);
l2.add(5);
l2.add(6);
List<Integer> l3 = new ArrayList<>();
l3.add(7);
l3.add(8);
l3.add(9);
List<List<Integer>> nums = new ArrayList<>();
nums.add(l1);
nums.add(l2);
nums.add(l3);
System.out.println(nums);
for (List<Integer> list : nums) {
for (Integer n : list) {
System.out.printf("%d ", n);
}
System.out.println();
}
}
}The example creates three lists of integers. Later, the lists are added into another fourth list.
List<Integer> l1 = new ArrayList<>(); l1.add(1); l1.add(2); l1.add(3);
A list of integers is created.
List<List> nums = new ArrayList<>(); nums.add(l1); nums.add(l2); nums.add(l3);
A list of lists is created.
for (List<Integer> list : nums) {
for (Integer n : list) {
System.out.printf("%d ", n);
}
System.out.println();
} We use two for loops to go through all the elements.
$ java com.zetcode.ListOfListsEx [[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6], [7, 8, 9]] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
This is the output of the com.zetcode.ListOfListsEx.
Java traversing a list
In the next section we show how to traverse a list in Java.
package com.zetcode;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
public class TraversingList {
public static void main(String[] args) {
List<String> martialArts = new ArrayList<>();
martialArts.add("Silat");
martialArts.add("Wing chun");
martialArts.add("Karate");
martialArts.add("Judo");
martialArts.add("Aikido");
for (int i=0; i < martialArts.size(); i++) {
System.out.printf("%s ", martialArts.get(i));
}
System.out.print("\n");
for (String e: martialArts) {
System.out.printf("%s ", e);
}
System.out.print("\n");
martialArts.forEach((e) -> System.out.printf("%s ", e));
System.out.print("\n");
}
}We have a list of strings; we show three ways to travers a list in Java.
for (int i=0; i < martialArts.size(); i++) {
System.out.printf("%s ", martialArts.get(i));
}A list is traversed using the traditional for loop.
for (String e: martialArts) {
System.out.printf("%s ", e);
}Here the list is looped over with the enhanced for loop.
martialArts.forEach((e) -> System.out.printf("%s ", e));The third way uses the forEach method and a lambda expression.
$ java com.zetcode.TraversingList Silat Wing chun Karate Judo Aikido Silat Wing chun Karate Judo Aikido Silat Wing chun Karate Judo Aikido
This is the output.
Java LinkedList
LinkedList is a doubly linked list in Java. Insertions and removals of elements take constant time. Linked lists provide sequential access to their elements, which means that grabbing elements takes linear time. Because linked lists need extra storage for references, they are impractical for lists of small data items such as characters.
When comparing ArrayList with LinkedList, ArrayList is fast for accessing a specific element but can be slow to add to either end, and especially slow to delete in the middle. LinkedList is fast for adding and deleting elements, but slow to access a specific element.
package com.zetcode;
import java.util.LinkedList;
public class LinkedListEx {
public static void main(String[] args) {
LinkedList<Integer> nums = new LinkedList<>();
nums.add(5);
nums.add(10);
nums.add(13);
nums.add(12);
nums.add(15);
nums.add(23);
System.out.println(nums);
nums.removeFirst();
nums.removeLast();
nums.addFirst(17);
nums.addLast(77);
System.out.println(nums);
}
}This is a LinkedList example with some of its methods.
LinkedList<Integer> nums = new LinkedList<>();
This LinkedList holds integer numbers.
nums.add(5); nums.add(10);
We add numbers to the list. Autoboxing wraps primitive int types to the Integer objects.
nums.removeFirst(); nums.removeLast();
These two methods remove the first and the last element from the container.
nums.addFirst(17); nums.addLast(77);
We add an element at the beginning and at the end of the list.
$ java com.zetcode.LinkedListEx [5, 10, 13, 12, 15, 23] [17, 10, 13, 12, 15, 77]
The elements contained by the linked list are printed twice to the console.
Java HashMap
HashMap is a container that stores key/value pairs. Each key is associated with one value. Keys must be unique. This container type is called an associative array or a dictionary in other programming languages. HashMaps take more memory because for each value there is also a key.
Deletion and insertion operations take constant time. HashMaps can store null values.
package com.zetcode;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.Set;
public class HashMapEx {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Map<String, String> domains = new HashMap<>();
domains.put("de", "Germany");
domains.put("sk", "Slovakia");
domains.put("us", "United States");
domains.put("ru", "Russia");
domains.put("hu", "Hungary");
domains.put("pl", "Poland");
System.out.println(domains.get("pl"));
for (String item : domains.values()) {
System.out.println(item);
}
Set keys = domains.keySet();
System.out.println(keys);
}
}We have a HashMap where we map domain names to their country names.
Map<String, String> domains = new HashMap<>();
We create a HashMap with string keys and values.
domains.put("de", "Germany");
domains.put("sk", "Slovakia");
domains.put("us", "United States");
...We put some data to the HashMap. The first string is the key. The second is the value.
System.out.println(domains.get("pl"));We retrieve a specific value by its key. For the retrieval operation, we use the get method.
for (String item : domains.values()) {
System.out.println(item);
}The values() method returns a collection of values contained in the domains HashMap. We go through the values with the for loop and print them to the console.
Set keys = domains.keySet();
The keySet() method returns the keys of the HashMap in a Set collection. A Set is a collection of unique elements.
System.out.println(keys);
The elements of the set are printed to the console.
$ java com.zetcode.HashMapEx Poland Germany Slovakia Hungary Poland United States Russia [de, sk, hu, pl, us, ru]
This is the output of the example.
In the next example, we create a map of custom colour objects.
package com.zetcode;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;
class Colour {
private String name;
private String code;
public Colour(String name, String code) {
this.name = name;
this.code = code;
}
public String getName() {
return name;
}
public void setName(String name) {
this.name = name;
}
public String getCode() {
return code;
}
public void setCode(String code) {
this.code = code;
}
}
public class HashMapEx2 {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Map<Integer, Colour> cols = new HashMap<>();
cols.put(1, new Colour("AliceBlue", "#f0f8ff"));
cols.put(2, new Colour("GreenYellow", "#adff2f"));
cols.put(3, new Colour("IndianRed", "#cd5c5c"));
cols.put(4, new Colour("khaki", "#f0e68c"));
System.out.printf("The size of the map is %d%n", cols.size());
int key = 4;
if (cols.containsKey(key)) {
System.out.printf("The map contains key %d%n", key);
}
cols.remove(1);
System.out.printf("The size of the map is %d%n", cols.size());
cols.replace(3, new Colour("VioletRed", "#d02090"));
Colour col = cols.get(3);
System.out.printf("Colour name:%s colour code:%s %n",
col.getName(), col.getCode());
}
}In this example, we present the following three methods: containsKey(), remove(), and replace().
class Colour {
private String name;
private String code;
public Colour(String name, String code) {
this.name = name;
this.code = code;
}
...
}The custom colour object contains colour name and colour code attributes.
Map<Integer, Colour> cols = new HashMap<>();
A map is created where keys are integers and values are Colour objects.
if (cols.containsKey(key)) {
System.out.printf("The map contains key %d%n", key);
}The containsKey() method determines whether the key is present in the map.
cols.remove(1);
The remove() method removes the object with the specified key from the map.
cols.replace(3, new Colour("VioletRed", "#d02090"));The replace() method replaces the entry for the specified key.
$ java com.zetcode.HashMapEx2 The size of the map is 4 The map contains key 4 The size of the map is 3 Colour name:VioletRed colour code:#d02090
This is the output of the example.
Counting words
In the following example we count the occurrences of words in a text file. We use HashMap to store words and their occurrences.
The Battle of Thermopylae was fought between an alliance of Greek city-states, led by King Leonidas of Sparta, and the Persian Empire of Xerxes I over the course of three days, during the second Persian invasion of Greece. It took place simultaneously with the naval battle at Artemisium, in August or September 480 BC, at the narrow coastal pass of Thermopylae. The Persian invasion was a delayed response to the defeat of the first Persian invasion of Greece, which had been ended by the Athenian victory at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. Xerxes had amassed a huge army and navy, and set out to conquer all of Greece.
We read content from thermopylae.txt file. The file is located in the src/resources/ directory.
package com.zetcode;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.Paths;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Map;
public class CountingWordsEx {
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
Map<String, Integer> wordCount = new HashMap<>();
String fileName = "src/resources/thermopylae.txt";
List<String> lines = Files.readAllLines(Paths.get(fileName),
StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
for (String line : lines) {
String[] words = line.split("\\s+");
for (String word : words) {
if (word.endsWith(".") || word.endsWith(",")) {
word = word.substring(0, word.length()-1);
}
if (wordCount.containsKey(word)) {
wordCount.put(word, wordCount.get(word) + 1);
} else {
wordCount.put(word, 1);
}
}
}
for (String key : wordCount.keySet()) {
System.out.println(key + ": " + wordCount.get(key));
}
}
}The example reads text from a file, splits the sentences into words and counts their frequency in the text.
Map<String, Integer> wordCount = new HashMap<>();
The wordCount is a map, where keys are words and the frequency is an integer.
String fileName = "src/resources/thermopylae.txt"; List<String> lines = Files.readAllLines(Paths.get(fileName), StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
We read all content in one shot with the Files.readAllLines() method.
for (String line : lines) {
String[] words = line.split("\\s+");
...We go through the lines and split them into words; the words are separated by spaces.
if (word.endsWith(".") || word.endsWith(",")) {
word = word.substring(0, word.length()-1);
}We remove trailing dots and commas.
if (wordCount.containsKey(word)) {
wordCount.put(word, wordCount.get(word) + 1);
} else {
wordCount.put(word, 1);
}If the word is already in the map, we increase its frequency; otherwise we insert it into the map and set its frequency to one.
for (String key : wordCount.keySet()) {
System.out.println(key + ": " + wordCount.get(key));
}We iterate over the map and print its key/value pairs.
$ java com.zetcode.CountingWordsEx been: 1 Athenian: 1 alliance: 1 navy: 1 fought: 1 led: 1 delayed: 1 had: 2 during: 1 three: 1 second: 1 Greece: 3 Leonidas: 1 ...
This is a partial output of the example.
Java TreeMap
TreeMap is a map that is sorted according to the natural ordering of its keys. While a HashMap is more time-efficient, a TreeMap is more space-efficient.
package com.zetcode;
import java.util.TreeMap;
public class TreeMapEx {
public static void main(String[] args) {
TreeMap<String, String> domains = new TreeMap<>();
domains.put("de", "Germany");
domains.put("sk", "Slovakia");
domains.put("us", "United States");
domains.put("ru", "Russia");
domains.put("hu", "Hungary");
domains.put("pl", "Poland");
System.out.println(domains);
System.out.println(domains.descendingMap());
}
}In the example, we create a TreeMap and put domains with their country names into it.
TreeMap<String, String> domains = new TreeMap<>();
A TreeMap is created.
System.out.println(domains);
This will print the keys/values in their natural sort order — in ascending order.
System.out.println(domains.descendingMap());
THe descendingMap() method returns a reverse order view of the mappings contained in this map.
$ java com.zetcode.TreeMapEx
{de=Germany, hu=Hungary, pl=Poland, ru=Russia, sk=Slovakia, us=United States}
{us=United States, sk=Slovakia, ru=Russia, pl=Poland, hu=Hungary, de=Germany}The com.zetcode.TreeMapEx program printed keys with their values in ascending and descending sort order.
Java HashSet
HashSet is a collection that contains no duplicate elements. This class offers constant time performance for the basic operations (add, remove, contains, and size). HashSet does not provide ordering of elements.
package com.zetcode;
import java.util.HashSet;
import java.util.Set;
public class HashSetEx {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Set<String> brands = new HashSet<>();
brands.add("Pepsi");
brands.add("Amazon");
brands.add("Volvo");
brands.add("IBM");
brands.add("IBM");
System.out.println(brands);
System.out.println(brands.isEmpty());
System.out.println(brands.contains("Volvo"));
brands.remove("Volvo");
System.out.println(brands.contains("Volvo"));
brands.clear();
System.out.println(brands);
}
}There can be only one brand registered under a name. So the brand names is a good example for a HashSet.
Set<String> brands = new HashSet<>();
brands.add("Pepsi");
brands.add("Amazon");
brands.add("Volvo");
brands.add("IBM");
brands.add("IBM");We create a HashSet and add new elements. The IBM brand is added twice. However, the IBM is present in the container only once.
System.out.println(brands);
We print all the elements in one shot.
System.out.println(brands.isEmpty());
The isEmpty() method checks if the container is empty.
System.out.println(brands.contains("Volvo"));With the contains() method we check if the Volvo brand is present in the brands container. The line prints true.
brands.remove("Volvo");
System.out.println(brands.contains("Volvo"));We remove the Volvo brand from the brands container. The second line prints false.
brands.clear();
The clear() method removes all of the elements from the set.
$ java com.zetcode.HashSetEx [IBM, Pepsi, Volvo, Amazon] false true false []
This is the output of the com.zetcode.HashSetEx program.
Java TreeSet
TreeSet is a set which has elements ordered using their natural ordering. TreeSet is slower than HashSet. HashSet can contain null values, while TreeSet cannot.
package com.zetcode;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.TreeSet;
public class TreeSetEx {
public static void main(String[] args) {
List<String> brands = new ArrayList<>();
brands.add("Pepsi");
brands.add("Amazon");
brands.add("Volvo");
brands.add("IBM");
brands.add("HP");
brands.add("Apple");
brands.add("Starbucks");
TreeSet<String> brands2 = new TreeSet<>();
brands2.addAll(brands);
System.out.println(brands2);
System.out.println(brands2.descendingSet());
System.out.println(brands2.first());
System.out.println(brands2.last());
System.out.println(brands2.headSet("IBM", true));
System.out.println(brands2.tailSet("IBM", false));
System.out.println(brands2.subSet("Apple", true, "Starbucks", true));
}
}In this example, we work with a TreeSet.
List<String> brands = new ArrayList<>();
brands.add("Pepsi");
brands.add("Amazon");
brands.add("Volvo");
brands.add("IBM");
brands.add("HP");
brands.add("Apple");
brands.add("Starbucks");An ArrayList of various brands is created.
TreeSet<String> brands2 = new TreeSet<>(); brands2.addAll(brands);
With the help of the addAll() method, a new TreeSet is created from the ArrayList container.
System.out.println(brands2); System.out.println(brands2.descendingSet());
The elements of the container are printed to the console in ascending and descending orders.
System.out.println(brands2.first()); System.out.println(brands2.last());
We print the first and the last element of the container.
System.out.println(brands2.headSet("IBM", true));The headSet() method returns a slice of the set whose elements are less than the specified element. The second parameter controls whether the specified element is included.
System.out.println(brands2.tailSet("IBM", false));The tailSet() method returns a slice of the set whose elements are greater than the specified element.
System.out.println(brands2.subSet("Apple", true, "Starbucks", true));The subSet() method returns a portion of the container whose elements range from the first specified element to the second one.
$ java com.zetcode.TreeSetEx [Amazon, Apple, HP, IBM, Pepsi, Starbucks, Volvo] [Volvo, Starbucks, Pepsi, IBM, HP, Apple, Amazon] Amazon Volvo [Amazon, Apple, HP, IBM] [Pepsi, Starbucks, Volvo] [Apple, HP, IBM, Pepsi, Starbucks]
This is the output of the com.zetcode.TreeSetEx example.
Java Collections class
Collections is a utility class that provides many useful methods for working with containers. It consists exclusively of static methods. Some of the methods are not applicable to all collection types. For example, it is not possible to use the sort() method on a HashSet, because this container does not support ordered elements.
package com.zetcode;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.List;
public class CollectionsEx {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Integer[] nums = { 4, 3, 2, 4, 5, 6, 4, 2, 7, 8, 9, 0, 1 };
List<Integer> ns = new ArrayList<>(Arrays.asList(nums));
System.out.println("Default order:");
System.out.println(ns);
System.out.println("Ascending order:");
Collections.sort(ns);
System.out.println(ns);
System.out.println("Descending order:");
Collections.reverse(ns);
System.out.println(ns);
System.out.println("Swapping the first and the last elements:");
Collections.swap(ns, 0, ns.size()-1);
System.out.println(ns);
System.out.println("Replacing all 4s with 0s:");
Collections.replaceAll(ns, 4, 0);
System.out.println(ns);
System.out.println("Random order:");
Collections.shuffle(ns);
System.out.println(ns);
System.out.println(Collections.max(ns));
System.out.println(Collections.min(ns));
}
}In the example, we use several methods of the Collections class.
Integer[] nums = { 4, 3, 2, 4, 5, 6, 4, 2, 7, 8, 9, 0, 1 };
ArrayList<Integer> ns = new ArrayList<>(Arrays.asList(nums));An ArrayList is created from an array of Integers. The asList() method of the Arrays class is used to transform an array into a list which is then passed to the constructor.
Collections.sort(ns);
The sort() method sorts the elements in ascending order.
Collections.reverse(ns);
The reverse() method reverses the order of elements in the list.
Collections.swap(ns, 0, ns.size()-1);
The swap() method exchanges two elements. The first element with the last element in our case.
Collections.replaceAll(ns, 4, 0);
This line replaces all occurrences of number 4 with 0.
Collections.shuffle(ns);
The shuffle() method randomly reorders the elements in the container.
System.out.println(Collections.max(ns)); System.out.println(Collections.min(ns));
Here we print the maximum and the minimum values of the list.
$ java com.zetcode.CollectionsEx Default order: [4, 3, 2, 4, 5, 6, 4, 2, 7, 8, 9, 0, 1] Ascending order: [0, 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9] Descending order: [9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 4, 4, 3, 2, 2, 1, 0] Swapping the first and the last elements: [0, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 4, 4, 3, 2, 2, 1, 9] Replacing all 4s with 0s: [0, 8, 7, 6, 5, 0, 0, 0, 3, 2, 2, 1, 9] Random order: [1, 6, 2, 8, 0, 2, 0, 9, 5, 0, 7, 3, 0] 9 0
This is a sample output of the com.zetcode.CollectionsEx program.
This part of the Java tutorial was dedicated to collections in Java.
