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Extract a fields data from a Map<Integer, Object> into a String

I have an Customer Object like below.
public class Custoemr {
private String Id;
Private String Name;
Private String Address;
Private String Description;
Setter/Getter;
toString;
}
This is Contained in Map<String, Customer> map, which contains the customerId and Object as key and value respectively. For analysis purposes, I need to collect all the customer description data in String to be written in a file.
To do that I need to Extract data from description in String and not List<String>.
I saw several examples on the internet which collects them as a List<String> but I need it in a single String.
Is there a way to extract the information without iterating I mean by using java Streams.

If I understood correctly:
yourMap.values()
.stream()
.map(Customer::getDescription)
.collect(Collectors.joining(","));

Remove duplicates based on a few object properties from list

I have a List collection where each Metric contains several properties such as: metricName, namespace, fleet, type, component, firstSeenTime, lastSeenTime, etc. There are duplicates in this list such that all properties are same except for firstSeenTime and lastSeenTime. I am looking for an elegant way to filter this list and only return the metrics with the most recent lastSeenTime when there are such duplicates.
Something better than this:
private List<Metric> processResults(List<Metric metrics) {
List<Metric> results = new ArrayList<>();
for (Metric incomingMetric: metrics) {
// We need to implement "contains" below so that only properties
// other than the two dates are checked.
if (results.contains(incomingMetric) {
int index = results.indexOf(incomingMetric);
Metric existing = results.get(index);
if (incomingMetric.getLastSeen().after(existing.getLastSeen())) {
results.set(index, metricName);
} else {
// do nothing, metric in results is already the latest
}
} else {
// add incomingMetric to results for the first time
results.add(incomingMetric);
}
}
return results;
}
The results.contains check is done by iterating over all the Metrics in results and checking if each object matches the properties except for the two dates.
What could be a better approach that this for both elegance and performance?

In java the most elegant way to compare things is the Comparator interface. You should remove the duplicates using something like:
public List<Metric> removeDuplicates(List<Metric> metrics) {
List<Metric> copy = new ArrayList<>(metrics);
//first sort the metrics list from most recent to older
Collections.sort(copy, new SortComparator());
Set<Metric> set = new TreeSet<Metric>(new Comparator<Metric>() {
#Override
public int compare(Metric o1, Metric o2) {
int result = 0;
// compare the two metrics given your rules
return result;
}
});
for(Metric metric : copy) {
set.add(metric);
}
List<Metric> result = Arrays.asList(set.toArray());
return result;
}
class SortComparator implements Comparator<Metric> {
#Override
public int compare(Metric o1, Metric o2) {
int result = 0;
if(o2.getLastSeenTime() != null && o1.getLastSeenTime() != null) {
result = o2.getLastSeenTime().compareTo(o1.getLastSeenTime());
}
return result;
}
}
The strong of this approach is that you could write a family of comparators and provide a Factory to choose at runtime the best way to compare your metrics and remove or not instances as duplicates among the runtime conditions:
public void removeDuplicates(List<Metric> metrics, Comparator<Metric> comparator) {
List<Metric> copy = new ArrayList<>(metrics);
Collections.sort(copy, new SortComparator());
Set<Metric> set = new TreeSet<Metric>(comparator);
for(Metric metric : copy) {
set.add(metric);
}
List<Object> result = Arrays.asList(set.toArray());
return result;
}

I’m not sure how you are generating List<Metric>. But if you can maintain a Map<String, Metric> instead of that list you may can try the below approach.
So the key of this map will be a combination of all these values you need to compare. (except the date attributes.)
Key: “{metricName}${type}$.....”
For this you can maintain another attribute in Metric object with getter. When you call the getter it will return the key.
Then check the key is exist or not before you put into the map. If it’s exist, get the stored Metric in map for that key and do the date comparison to find the latest Metric object. If it’s the latest replace the map's stored object with new object.
PS : Do the execution time comparison for both cases. So you will find the best approach.

Thanks for the answers. I went with the map approach since it does not incur additional sorts and copies.
#VisibleForTesting
Set<Metric> removeDuplicates(List<Metric> metrics) {
Map<RawMetric, Metric> metricsMap = new HashMap<>();
for (Metric metric : metrics) {
RawMetric rawMetric = RawMetric.builder()
.metricName(metric.getName())
.metricType(metricName.getMetricType())
... // and more
.build();
// pick the latest updated metric (based on lastSeen date)
BiFunction<RawMetric, Metric, Metric> biFunction =
(k, v) -> Metric.builder()
.name(k.getMetricName())
.metricType(k.getMetricType())
... // and more
.lastSeen(v.getLastSeen().after(
metricName.getLastSeen()) ? v.getLastSeen() :
metricName.getLastSeen())
.firstSeen(v.getFirstSeen())
.build();
metricsMap.putIfAbsent(rawMetric, metric);
metricsMap.computeIfPresent(rawMetric, biFunction);
}
return ImmutableSet.copyOf(metricsMap.values());
}
#Value
#Builder
static class RawMetricName {
private String metricName;
private String metricType;
private String ad;
private String project;
private String fleet;
private String host;
private int granularity;
}

Searching in an ArrayList from simple POJO class and avoiding null values using java 8 stream

I have an ArrayList class having name MainList
Like
public class MainList{
private String sname;
private String lname;
private String address;
private String branch;
private String city;
//getter and setter
}
Also I have another pojo class based on values in this class I will perform searching of Lname, address, branch and city.. its Search
public class Search{
private String searchSname;
//getter and setter
}
I used following code to perform search
List<MainList> myList = new ArrayList<>();
//injecting bean to insert data
Search search=new search();
//injecting bean ti insert data
List<MainList> data = myList.stream()
.filter(p-> p.getSname().equals(search.getSearchSname()))
.findFirst()
.orElse(null);
This works fine if search.getSearchSname() contain any value but I want to make senario in which if the value of search.getSearchSname() is null then instead of returning nullPointerException it will return first object of MainList otherwise perform search operation based on value
As I show you a very simple example but I want to implement it in very large data and there is possibility that some of the inputs are not given and I required to skip it while filtering I can implement it by if condition but if any scope beyond that then plz help me ...

Just add a null check to your filter:
MainList firstMatch = myList.stream()
.filter(p -> search.getSearchSname() == null
|| p.getSname().equals(search.getSearchSname()))
.findFirst()
.orElse(null);

List<MainList> myList = new ArrayList<>();
Search search = new search();
List<MainList> data;
if (search.getSearchSname() == null) {
data = myList.get(0);
} else {
data = myList.stream()
.filter(p-> p.getSname().equals(search.getSearchSname()))
.findFirst()
.orElse(null);
}

How to write my own comparator class in java?

I didn't find proper solution for the below scenario. I have employee names and location. In each location many employees can work.
Example: assume that employee names are unique so I consider it as a key and value as location.
TreeMap<String,String> t=new TreeMap<String,String>();
t.put(mike, Houston);
t.put(arian, Houston);
t.put(John, Atlanta);
Well my scenario is i have to write my own comparator where location is sorted first and when there are multiple locations of same name then they need to be sorted by employees. Any kind of help is appreciated.

you need a structure, and compareTo:
public class EmpLoc implements Comparable<EmpLoc> {
String employee;
String location;
public EmpLoc (String _employee, String _location)
{
employee=_employee;
location=_location;
}
#Override
public int compareTo(EmpLoc other)
{
int last = this.location.compareTo(other.location);
return last == 0 ? this.employee.compareTo(other.employee) : last;
}
}

The problem is in your data structure. TreeMap ensure your keys are always sorted in an order, but your key doesn't have full information you need to sort. Instead what you need is probably
TreeSet<Employee> employees = new TreeSet<>(employeeComparator);
where Employee is:
public class Employee {
private String name;
private String location;
/* getters & setters omitted */
}
Now you can create a comparator for Employee

You can use similar structure:
Map<String, List<String>> map = new TreeMap<>(<your_own_comparator_for_locations_or_default_one>);
This is Multimap, and this is implementation by conventional means, but also there are third-party implementation, e.g. Guava. Guava has some sorted, synchronized and immutable implementations of multimaps, you can use them by default or to see how to do some things.
You can put values like below:
public void putEmployees(String location, String employee) {
List<String> employees = map.get(location);
if (employee == null) {
employees = new ArrayList<>();
}
employees.add(employee);
Collections.sort(employees, <your_own_comparator_for_employees_or_default_one>);
map.put(location, employees);
}

Returning all the keys from a HashMap withou looping

I am attemping to populate a JComboBox with the names of cities.
My program has a class called 'Country'. The Country object contains a HashMap of objects called 'City' with a method getName, returning a String value.
public class Country {
private final Map<String, City> cities = new HashMap<>();
public Collection<City> getCities() {
return cities.values();
}
}
public class City {
String cityName;
public String getName() {
return cityName;
}
}
Is it possible to return an String array of cityName without using a loop? I was trying the following but it did not work:
Country country 1 = new Country();
String[] cityNames = country1.getCities().toArray();
JComboBox cityChoice = new JComboBox(cityNames);
This returns an Array of City objects, however I am not sure how to use the City getName method in conjunction with this.

You can not avoid looping. Either, you will loop, or Java will loop in the background.
You can avoid writing your own loop if keys in your map are city names. Then, you could only ask .keySet() from the map. But, even in that case, Java would loop in the background and copy the keys.
Other way is that you loop, but hide the loop in some method (lets say getCitiesArray()) in the class. So, you could do country1.getCitiesArray(); in the calling method. Code would look better and be easier to read, but you would still need to have loop inside of the class.

You can store Map key as CityName then do below to get Names.
cities.keySet();

The city object can be used directly in the combobox with some minor alterations.
public class City {
String cityName;
public String getName() {
return cityName;
}
#Override
public String toString() {
return getName();
}
}
Then the population code
Country country1 = new Country();
City[] cities = country1.getCities().toArray();
JComboBox<City> cityChoice = new JComboBox<City>(cities);
You should probably override hashCode and equals also.

If you are using Java 8, you can use the Stream API to map the names of the cities to a String:
String []cityNames = country1.getCities().stream().map(City::getName).toArray(String[]::new);