HELP/FAQ

From the java.util package.

Vectors can resize themselves dynamically.

Inserting elements into a Vector whose current size is less than its capacity is a relatively fast operation.

Inserting an element into a full Vector is a slow operation since the Vector must be resized.

When a Vector is resized, the default new size is twice the original size.

A Vector can be trimmed to size but this leaves no room for inserts without resizing again.

Vectors store references to Objects.

To store values of a primitive data type in a Vector, use the type-wrapper classes from the java.lang package.

The Vector methods contains and indexOf perform linear searches of a Vector’s contents.

The Vector method elements returns an Enumeration that enables a programmer to iterate through the Vector’s elements.

An Enumeration specifies two methods:

- hasMoreElements

- nextElement

Example: 

Vector v;

Enumeration enum;

enum = v.elements();

while (enum.hasMoreElements())

{

    obj = enum.nextElement();

    // process element here

}

The class Stack extends the class Vector.

Additional methods provided:

public boolean push(Object obj);

public Object pop();

public Object peek();

public boolean empty();

public int search(Object obj);
*NOTE: Top of stack is position 1!

The user of Stack may perform operations on a stack that are not necessarily typical of a stack since Stack inherits methods from Vector. This may corrupt the stack if used incorrectly.

The standard Java library does not have an explicit class for the queue abstraction.

But: The class LinkedList does provide the ability to add and remove elements to or from either end of a collection.

The standard Java library does not have an explicit class for the priority queue abstraction.

But: The class TreeSet can be used as a priority queue.

A Dictionary maps keys to values.

Dictionary is an abstract class.

Dictionary provides the public interface methods required to maintain a table of key-value pairs, where each key in the table is unique.

Hashtable is a subclass of Dictionary.

Dictionary abstract methods:

Enumeration elements();

Enumeration keys();

boolean isEmpty();

Object get(Object key);

Object put(Object key, Object value);

Object remove(Object key);

Hashtable is a subclass of Dictionary.

Hashtable uses chaining to resolve collisions.

Hashtable’s default load factor is .75

When the number of entries in the table exceeds the product of the load factor and the current capacity (number of chains), the capacity is increased by calling the rehash method.

Additional methods:

public boolean containsKey(Object key);

public boolean contains(Object value);

Properties is a subclass of Hashtable.

A Properties object is a persistent Hashtable object that normally stores
key-value pairs of Strings, using the methods setProperty and getProperty instead of the methods put and get.

public String getProperty(String key);

public Object setProperty(String key, String value);

The Properties object can be saved to a stream or loaded from a stream.

A collection is a data structure (an object) that can hold other objects.

The collection interfaces define the operations that a program can perform on each type of collection.

The implementations are generally designed for rapid execution and efficient use of memory, but...

Collections encourage software reuse.

Arrays provides static methods for array manipulation.

public static int binarySearch(Object[] a, Object key);

The array a must be sorted first before use of this method. If the array is not sorted, the results are undefined.

public static void sort(Object[] a);

The sorting algorithm used is a tuned version of quick sort adapted from Bentley and McIlroy ("Engineering a Sort Function", 1993).

The Arrays methods are heavily overloaded!

Collection is the interface from which specific collections are derived.

Collection contains bulk operations for adding, clearing, comparing and retaining objects in the collection.

Collection provides a method that returns an Iterator to examine all elements in the collection (rather than an Enumeration). An Iterator can remove an element from a collection.

Iterator specifies the methods hasNext, next and remove.

List is the interface that defines an ordered collection that can contain duplicate elements.

List is zero-based (the first element is at index 0).

Interface List is implemented by the classes:

- ArrayList (resizable array implementation)

- LinkedList (linked-list implementation)

- Vector

LinkedList can be used to implement stacks, queues, and double-ended queues (dequeues).

public void add(int index, Object obj);

public void addFirst(Object obj);

public void addLast(Object obj);

public Object get(int index);

public Object getFirst();

public Object getLast();

public boolean remove(Object obj);

public Object removeFirst();

public Object removeLast();

public int size();

Set is the interface that defines an unordered collection that cannot contain duplicate elements.

Interface SortedSet extends Set and maintains its elements in sorted order.

Interface Set is implemented by the classes:

- HashSet (hash table implementation)

- TreeSet (red-black tree implementation)

Class TreeSet implements SortedSet.

TreeSet can be used to implement priority queues (heaps).

public boolean add(Object obj);

public boolean contains(Object obj);

public Object first();

public SortedSet headSet(Object obj);

public boolean isEmpty();

public Iterator iterator();

public Object last();

public SortedSet tailSet(Object obj);

public boolean remove(Object obj);

public SortedSet subSet(Object o1, Object o2);

Map is the interface that defines a collection that associates keys to values and cannot contains duplicate keys. (one-to-one mapping)

Interface SortedMap extends Map and maintains its keys in sorted order.

Interface Map is implemented by the classes:

- HashMap (hash table implementation)

- TreeMap (red-black tree implementation)

Class TreeMap implements SortedMap.

Class HashMap is roughly equivalent to Hashtable except that it permits null as a key or value.

public Object put(Object key, Object value);

public boolean containsKey(Object key);

public Object firstKey();

public SortedMap headMap(Object key);

public Object lastKey();

public SortedMap tailMap(Object key);

public boolean remove(Object key);

public SortedMap subMap(Object key1, Object key2);

public Collection values();

Collections provides static methods for manipulation of collections.

public static int binarySearch(List list, Object key);

public static void sort(List list);

The sort is guaranteed to be stable (equal elements will not be reordered as a result).

The sort is a modified version of merge sort.

public static void shuffle(List list);

public static void reverse(List list);

public static Object max(Collection c);

public static Object min(Collection c);

In general, use of the API will result in code that runs efficiently and uses memory wisely and make coding much faster assuming you know the API well.

Some uses of the API will violate the standard definitions of data structures and may result in corrupt data if used incorrectly.

For time-critical or data-critical applications, user-defined data structures are preferable.

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