Section 16 Collections and Generics

Collections:

A collection (container) is an object that groups multiple elements into a single unit.

TreeSet: Keeps the elements sorted and prevents duplicates.Use red-black tree.

HashSet: Prevents duplicates.

LinkedList: Better performance for insertion and deletion

HashMap: Store name/value pairs. No duplicate keys. Can have duplicate values.

LinkedHashMap: Remember the order elements inserted.

Map is not a true collection.

Use Set /List/Map as the reference type instead of implementation types.

Set: prevent duplicates.

HashSet: hashtable.

TreeSet: Keep the elements sorted. Use red-black tree.

LinkedHashSet: Keep insertion order.

List:

ArrayList

LinkedList: Better performance for insertion and deletion

Vector

Deque: (deck)

Implement both stack and queue.

Map:

TreeMap:

HashMap:

LinkedHashMap:

HashTable: 

1.hashMap去掉了HashTable 的contains方法，但是加上了containsValue（）和containsKey（）方法。
2.hashTable同步的，而HashMap是非同步的，效率上逼hashTable要高。
3.hashMap允许空键值，而hashTable不允许。

Ordering for sort:

Classes Implementing Comparable

Class	Natural Ordering
Byte	Signed numerical
Character	Unsigned numerical
Long	Signed numerical
Integer	Signed numerical
Short	Signed numerical
Double	Signed numerical
Float	Signed numerical
BigInteger	Signed numerical
BigDecimal	Signed numerical
Boolean	Boolean.FALSE < Boolean.TRUE
File	System-dependent lexicographic on path name
String	Lexicographic
Date	Chronological
CollationKey	Locale-specific lexicographic

1. public static <T extends Comparable<? super T>> void sort(List<T> list)

sort() method only takes comparable objects. T must be comparable. Implement Comparable interface.

2. public static <T> void sort(List<T> list, Comparator<? super T> c)

Use custom Comparator.

Generics: for type-safe collections

Generic Method:

public <T extends Animal> void takeThing(ArrayList<T> list)

HashSet 首先判断hashcode是否一致，利用hashcode产生数组下标。如果hashcode一致（可能是冲突），则调用equals()判断reference是否一样。

a.equals(b) implies a.hashCode()==b.hashCode(). Not verse.

If you override equals(), you must override hashcode().

Polymorphism:

public void takeAnimals(Animals[] animals); // can take subclass of Animal as arguments.
public void takeAnimals(ArrayList<Animal> animals); // can take only take Animal class.

To avoid adding wrong type to the ArrayList, use wildcards:

public <T extends Animal> void takeThing(ArrayList<T> list)
public void takeThing(ArrayList<? extends Animal> list)