Collections in Java

The Java Collection Framework package (java.util) contains:

1. A set of interfaces
2. Implementation classes
3. Algorithms (such as sorting and searching)

Important Default Implementation in Collections

Some of the most important implementations are stack, queue, dequeue, list, and tree.  List interface has several implementation such as ArrayList and LinkedList classes.  Following is the example which elaborates how to use List interface in your code.

package Examples;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.List;

class ListEx {
   public static void main(String[] args) {
        // Create an instance
	   List lst = new ArrayList();
	   // add() takes values or objects
      lst.add("A");           
      lst.add("B");
      lst.add("C");
      System.out.println(lst);     // [A, B, C]
 
      // Get an iterator instance from List to iterate through all the elements of the List
      Iterator iter = lst.iterator();
      while (iter.hasNext()) {      // has more element in the list
         // Retrieve the next element
         String str = (String)iter.next();
         // print the element on console
         System.out.println(str);
      }
   }
}

package Examples;

import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;

class ListEx {
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		
		List list = Arrays.asList(5,10,20,30,60,100);

		for (Integer integer : list) {
			System.out.println(integer);
		}
	}

}

In java 8 lambda expression are incorporated with collections to simplify the operations. The example below shows how to create a collection of type list which is parametrized with to indicate compiler that only Strings are allowed in this collection. Later it uses a foreach loop from java and pass a method reference to print the list elements on the screen.

package Examples;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;

public class CollEx {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        // create an array list
        List list = Arrays.asList("A", "B","C");

        // the alternative way to create array list is
        List list2 = new ArrayList<>();
        list2.add("A");
        list2.add("B");
        list2.add("C");

        // print each element of an array list 
        list.forEach(System.out::println);
        list2.forEach(System.out::println);

    }
}

You may also sort the list using lambda expressions. The following example shows different ways to sort the list.

package Examples;

import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;

class ListEx {
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		
		System.out.println("Sorting with natural order");
        List list1 = generateAList();
        list1.sort(null);
        list1.forEach(System.out::println);

        System.out.println("Sorting with a lambda expression for the comparison");
        List list2 = generateAList();
        list2.sort((s1, s2) -> s1.compareToIgnoreCase(s2));  // sort ignoring case
        list2.forEach(System.out::println);

        System.out.println("Sorting with a method references");
        List list3 = generateAList();
        list3.sort(String::compareToIgnoreCase);
        list3.forEach(System.out::println);
	}

	private static List generateAList() {
		 return Arrays.asList("D", "B", "A", "C");
	}

}

Removing a list member using lambda expression. Following example shows how to remove A from the list.

package Examples;

import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;

class ListEx {
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		  System.out.println("Demonstration of removeIf");
	        List list1 = generateAList();
	        
	        // remove all items which contains an "A"
	        list1.removeIf(s-> s.toLowerCase().contains("A"));
	        list1.forEach(s->System.out.println(s));
	}

	private static List generateAList() {
		 return Arrays.asList("A", "B", "A", "C");
	}

}

Bulk Operation in Collection Interface

Java collections provides methods to perform bulk operations such as clear the whole list, merge two collections into one and remove all from the collection. One can use these shorthand operations using these operation provided by Collection interface. Following code elaborates the functionality of the following methods:

addAll: Adds all the elements of a Collection to another Collection

package Examples;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.Collection;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.List;

public class MapEx {
	public static void main(String[] args) {

		//Example 1 to use addAll collections method
		//Create list1 and list2
		ArrayList list1  = new ArrayList<>();
		ArrayList list2 = new ArrayList<>();
		
		//add some values in list1 and list2
		list1.add(1);
		list1.add(2);
		list2.add(3.0);
		list2.add(4.0);
		
		//Create a 3rd collection list
		Collection all = new ArrayList();
		//add / merge 1st and 2nd list
		all.addAll(list1);
		all.addAll(list2);
		
		System.out.println(all.toString());
		
		//Example 2 : using Arrays
		List numList1 = Arrays.asList(1,2,-1);
	    List numList2 = Arrays.asList(4,5,6);

	    List allNum = new ArrayList();
	    allNum.addAll(numList1);
	    allNum.addAll(numList2);
	    System.out.println(allNum);
	    
	    //Example 3 : 
	    Collections.addAll(all,"10","20","30");
	    System.out.println(all.toString());
	}
}

containsAll: It returns true if target collection contains all elements in given collection

boolean b = all.containsAll(list1);
	    System.out.println(b);

removeAll: Removes all the elements from target collection that are also in specified collection

all.removeAll(list1);
	    System.out.println(all.toString());

retainAll: Retain only elements of target collection that are also in the specified collection

all.retainAll(list2);
	    System.out.println(all.toString());

clear: Clears/removes all elements from a collection

all.clear();
	    System.out.println(all.toString());

More Useful Methods in Collections Class

Sort Method

Collections.sort(list1);
System.out.println(list1.toString());

Reverse Method

Collections.reverse(list1);
	    System.out.println(list1.toString());

Copy Method

Copy all elements from source to target collection.

ArrayList a = new ArrayList();
	    a.add(5);
	    a.add(10);
	    ArrayList b = new ArrayList(a.size());
	    Collections.copy(b,a );

Shuffle Method

Collections.shuffle(list1);

Swap Method

Swap element 0 and 1 from the given list.

Collections.swap(list1,0,1 );