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JAVA : Best performance-wise method to find an object stored in hashMap

I have a bunch of objects stored in hashMap<Long,Person> i need to find the person object with a specific attribute without knowing its ID.
for example the person class:
public person{
long id;
String firstName;
String lastName;
String userName;
String password;
String address;
..
(around 7-10 attributes in total)
}
lets say i want to find the object with username = "mike". Is there any method to find it without actually iterating on the whole hash map like this :
for (Map.Entry<Long,Person> entry : map.entrySet()) {
if(entry.getValue().getUserName().equalsIgnoreCase("mike"));
the answers i found here was pretty old.

If you want speed and are always looking for one specific attribute, your best bet is to create another 'cache' hash-map keyed with that attribute.
The memory taken up will be insignificant for less than a million entries and the hash-map lookup will be much much faster than any other solution.
Alternatively you could put all search attributes into a single map (ie. names, and ids). Prefix the keys with something unique if you're concerned with collisions. Something like:
String ID_PREFIX = "^!^ID^!^";
String USERNAME_PREFIX = "^!^USERNAME^!^";
String FIRSTNAME_PREFIX = "^!^FIRSTNAME^!^";
Map<String,Person> personMap = new HashMap<String,Person>();
//add a person
void addPersonToMap(Person person)
{
personMap.put(ID_PREFIX+person.id, person);
personMap.put(USERNAME_PREFIX+person.username, person);
personMap.put(FIRSTNAME_PREFIX+person.firstname, person);
}
//search person
Person findPersonByID(long id)
{
return personMap.get(ID_PREFIX+id);
}
Person findPersonByUsername(String username)
{
return personMap.get(USERNAME_PREFIX+username);
}
//or a more generic version:
//Person foundPerson = findPersonByAttribute(FIRSTNAME_PREFIX, "mike");
Person findPersonByAttribute(String attr, String attr_value)
{
return personMap.get(attr+attr_value);
}
The above assumes that each attribute is unique amongst all the Persons. This might be true for ID and username, but the question specifies firstname=mike which is unlikely to be unique.
In that case you want to abstract with a list, so it would be more like this:
Map<String,List<Person>> personMap = new HashMap<String,List<Person>>();
//add a person
void addPersonToMap(Person person)
{
insertPersonIntoMap(ID_PREFIX+person.id, person);
insertPersonIntoMap(USERNAME_PREFIX+person.username, person);
insertPersonIntoMap(FIRSTNAME_PREFIX+person.firstname, person);
}
//note that List contains no duplicates, so can be called multiple times for the same person.
void insertPersonIntoMap(String key, Person person)
{
List<Person> personsList = personMap.get(key);
if(personsList==null)
personsList = new ArrayList<Person>();
personsList.add(person);
personMap.put(key,personsList);
}
//we know id is unique, so we can just get the only person in the list
Person findPersonByID(long id)
{
List<Person> personList = personMap.get(ID_PREFIX+id);
if(personList!=null)
return personList.get(0);
return null;
}
//get list of persons with firstname
List<Person> findPersonsByFirstName(String firstname)
{
return personMap.get(FIRSTNAME_PREFIX+firstname);
}
At that point you're really getting into a grab-bag design but still very efficient if you're not expecting millions of entries.

The best performance-wise method I can think of is to have another HashMap, with the key being the attribute you want to search for, and the value being a list of objects.
For your example this would be HashMap<String, List<Person>>, with the key being the username. The downside is that you have to maintain two maps.
Note: I've used a List<Person> as the value because we cannot guarantee that username is unique among all users. The same applies for any other field.
For example, to add a Person to this new map you could do:
Map<String, List<Person>> peopleByUsername = new HashMap<>();
// ...
Person p = ...;
peopleByUsername.computeIfAbsent(
p.getUsername(),
k -> new ArrayList<>())
.add(p);
Then, to return all people whose username is i.e. joesmith:
List<Person> matching = peopleByUsername.get("joesmith");

Getting one or a few entries from a volatile map
If the map you're operating on can change often and you only want to get a few entries then iterating over the map's entries is ok since you'd need space and time to build other structures or sort the data as well.
Getting many entries from a volatile map
If you need to get many entries from that map you might get better performance by either sorting the entries first (e.g. build a list and sort that) and then using binary search. Alternatively you could build an intermediate map that uses the attribute(s) you need to search for as its key.
Note, however, that both approaches at least need time so this only yields better performance when you're looking for many entries.
Getting entries multiple times from a "persistent" map
If your map and its valuies doesn't change (or not that often) you could maintain a map attribute -> person. This would mean some effort for the initial setup and updating the additional map (unless your data doesn't change) as well as some memory overhead but speeds up lookups tremendously later on. This is a worthwhile approach when you'd do very little "writes" compared to how often you do lookups and if you can spare the memory overhead (depends on how big those maps would be and how much memory you have to spare).

Consider one hashmap per alternate key.
This will have "high" setup cost,
but will result in quick retrieval by alternate key.
Setup the hashmap using the Long key value.
Run through the hashmap Person objects and create a second hashmap (HashMap<String, Person>) for which username is the key.
Perhaps, fill both hashmaps at the same time.
In your case,
you will end up with something like HashMap<Long, Person> idKeyedMap and HashMap<String, Person> usernameKeyedMap.
You can also put all the key values in the same map,
if you define the map as Map<Object, Person>.
Then,
when you add the
(id, person) pair,
you need to also add the (username, person) pair.
Caveat, this is not a great technique.

What is the best way to solve the problem?
There are many ways to tackle this as you can see in the answers and comments.
How is the Map is being used (and perhaps how it is created). If the Map is built from a select statement with the long id value from a column from a table we might think we should use HashMap<Long, Person>.
Another way to look at the problem is to consider usernames should also be unique (i.e. no two persons should ever share the same username). So instead create the map as a HashMap<String, Person>. With username as the key and the Person object as the value.
Using the latter:
Map<String, Person> users = new HashMap<>();
users = retrieveUsersFromDatabase(); // perform db select and build map
String username = "mike";
users.get(username).
This will be the fastest way to retrieve the object you want to find in a Map containing Person objects as its values.

You can simply convert Hashmap to List using:
List list = new ArrayList(map.values());
Now, you can iterate through the list object easily. This way you can search Hashmap values on any property of Person class not just limiting to firstname.
Only downside is you will end up creating a list object. But using stream api you can further improve code to convert Hashmap to list and iterate in single operation saving space and improved performance with parallel streams.

Sorting and finding of value object can be done by designing and using an appropriate Comparator class.
Comparator Class : Designing a Comparator with respect to a specific attribute can be done as follows:
class UserComparator implements Comparator<Person>{
#Override
public int compare(Person p1, Person p2) {
return p1.userName.compareTo(p2.userName);
}
}
Usage : Comparator designed above can be used as follows:
HashMap<Long, Person> personMap = new HashMap<Long, Person>();
.
.
.
ArrayList<Person> pAL = new ArrayList<Person>(personMap.values()); //create list of values
Collections.sort(pAL,new UserComparator()); // sort the list using comparator
Person p = new Person(); // create a dummy object
p.userName="mike"; // Only set the username
int i= Collections.binarySearch(pAL,p,new UserComparator()); // search the list using comparator
if(i>=0){
Person p1 = pAL.get(Collections.binarySearch(pAL,p,new UserComparator())); //Obtain object if username is present
}else{
System.out.println("Insertion point: "+ i); // Returns a negative value if username is not present
}

Value of HashMap inside a Hashmap in Java

I have this hashmap of students which stores the id, name and last name.
So I created this :
Map<Interger, HashMap<String,String>> students = new HashMap<>();
where the second hashmap stores the name and lastname.
My goal is to look for a student in a swing application, I succeed in searching with id because it's the key of the first hashmap, but i'd like to use all of them like this:
So my question is : If I want to search by name or last name, how can i get the value of the first hashmap and put it in a new hashmap ?

You can iterate on the hashmap like this :
private int searchByName(String s) {
for(Map.Entry<Integer, HashMap<String, String>> entry : students.entrySet()) {
HashMap student = entry.getValue(); // Hashmap containing first and lastname
if (student.containsKey(s)) // If name match
return entry.getKey(); // Return the student ID
}
return 0; // Student not found
}
For the lastname just use containsValue(s) instead of containsKey(s)

You can use the Google Collections API Guava for that specifically a BiMap
A bimap (or "bidirectional map") is a map that preserves the
uniqueness of its values as well as that of its keys. This constraint
enables bimaps to support an "inverse view", which is another bimap
containing the same entries as this bimap but with reversed keys and
values.
With this you'will be able to search using first name and last name. This BiMap will be value to your first parent hashmap.

I am not sure if the data structure is the best for your use-case but answering to your question, you should try using values() method which would return you the collection of values of the Map
http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/util/HashMap.html#values()
Collection res = studensts.values();
Iterator<HashMap<String, String>> i = res.iterator();
Map<String,String> resM = null;
while(i.hasNext()){
resM = i.next();
}

Get key from HashMap in Android by position or index

I have:
public static HashMap<String, String> CHILD_NAME_DOB = new HashMap<>();
Suppose the values in CHILD_NAME_DOB are:
<adam,15121990>
<roy,01051995>
<neha,05091992>
<alisha,11051992>
I am trying to fetch the last key element from CHILD_NAME_DOB. That is, I want to fetch key alisha from the example above to temporary String name.
Also I want to know on how to fetch data by index.
Eg.: if int index = 2 , I want key "Neha" in String name
TIA.
Edit: DateOfBirth value (value data in CHILD_NAME_DOB) is dynamic and is unknown. So THIS LINK is not what I want.

Single line solution:
First note that the Java HashMap does not guarantee the order of entries. So each time you iterate over a HashMap, entries appear in different positions. You will need LinkedHashMap that guarantees the predictable iteration order.
Map<String, String> CHILD_NAME_DOB = new LinkedHashMap<>();
Get the key by index:
key = (new ArrayList<>(CHILD_NAME_DOB.keySet())).get(index)
Get the value by index:
CHILD_NAME_DOB.get(key)

Thanks to #Pentium10 for this answer.
And I little modified it according to my need.
String key="default";
Iterator myVeryOwnIterator = CHILD_NAME_DOB.keySet().iterator();
while(myVeryOwnIterator.hasNext()) {
key=(String)myVeryOwnIterator.next();
//String value=(String)meMap.get(key);
}
Toast.makeText(viewEnterChildExp.getContext(), "Key: "+key , Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
I'm getting the last key element by this.
I'll update as soon I also get to find an easy way to key by index.

This way to get key....
public static String getHashMapKeyFromIndex(HashMap hashMap, int index){
String key = null;
HashMap <String,Object> hs = hashMap;
int pos=0;
for(Map.Entry<String, Object> entry : hs.entrySet())
{
if(index==pos){
key=entry.getKey();
}
pos++;
}
return key;
}

You can also use an ArrayMap instead of a HashMap. To get the value by index use:
ArrayMap.valueAt(index);
To get the Key at an index use:
ArrayMap.keyAt(index);

Fetching the "last" key and fetch by index is not supported by HashMap. You can use a LinkedHashMap and lookup the element with index 2 (or the last element) by iterating over it. But this will be a O(n) operation.
I suggest you use a List<Pair<String, String>> if the order of the keys/values is important to you and you wish to do index based lookup.
If both key based and index based lookup is important to you, you could use a combined data structure that consists of both a List and a HashMap, but note that removal of elements will be O(n).

You can create a class Child
public class Child(){
private String name;
private String number;
....
}
and then put this object in a List
public static List<Child> CHILD_NAME_DOB = new ArrayList<Child>(); // using LinkedList would defeat the purpose
in this way you can invoke the method get(int index), that returns the element at the specified position in this list.
In your example
<adam,15121990>
<roy,01051995>
<neha,05091992>
<alisha,11051992>
invoking CHILD_NAME_DOB.get(2) you'll get <neha,05091992>(as Child object)

HashMap does not have a concept of ordering, so getting the n-th entry does not make sense. You could use a TreeMap instead, which is ordered on its keys.
However, you should reconsider your model as you seem to have conflicting interests. On the one hand, accessing by index is typical for Lists, whereas accessing by key is typical for Maps. I'm not sure in which situation you'd want to do both.
If you really want to do both index and key accessing, you could write your own data structure that stores the data in a list combined with a mapping from key to index and vice versa. I would recommend against this, but if that's really what you want, then I think that's the best solution.

I know it is not the best solution, but what about this solution (pseudocode!). Just combine List and Map in one class.
public class UserBirthday {
private List<String> names = new ArrayList<>();
private Map<String, String> CHILD_NAME_DOB = new HashMap<String, String>();
public void add(String name, String bd) {
if (!CHILD_NAME_DOB.containsKey(name)) {
names.add(name);
}
CHILD_NAME_DOB.put(name, bd);
}
public String getByName(String name) {
return CHILD_NAME_DOB.get(name);
}
public String getByIndex(int index) {
return getByName(names.get(index)); // TODO: range test
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
UserBirthday ub = new UserBirthday();
ub.add("dit", "12345678");
ub.add("lea", "234239423");
ub.add("alex", "43534534");
ub.add("ted", "099098790");
System.out.println(ub.getByIndex(2));
System.out.println(ub.getByName("alex"));
}
}
You may get some problems if you remove an entry, but it should be just a suggestion.

for (String key : hmList.keySet()) {
String value = hmList.get(key);
Log.e("HashMap values", "key=" + key + " ,value=" + value);
}

HashSet contains substring

I have a HashSet of Strings in the format: something_something_name="value"
Set<String> name= new HashSet<String>();
Farther down in my code I want to check if a String "name" is included in the HashSet. In this little example, if I'm checking to see if "name" is a substring of any of the values in the HashSet, I'd like it to return true.
I know that .contains() won't work since that works using .equals(). Any suggestions on the best way to handle this would be great.

With your existing data structure, the only way is to iterate over all entries checking each one in turn.
If that's not good enough, you'll need a different data structure.

You can build a map (name -> strings) as follows:
Map<String, List<String>> name_2_keys = new HashMap<>();
for (String name : names) {
String[] parts = key.split("_");
List<String> keys = name_2_keys.get(parts[2]);
if (keys == null) {
keys = new ArrayList<>();
}
keys.add(name);
name_2_keys.put(parts[2], keys);
}
Then retrieve all the strings containing the name name:
List<String> keys = name_2_keys.get(name)

You can keep another map where name is the key and something_something_name is the value.
Thus, you would be able to move from name -> something_something_name -> value. If you want a single interface, you can write a wrapper class around these two maps, exposing the functionality you want.

I posted a MapFilter class here a while ago.
You could use it like:
MapFilter<String> something = new MapFilter<String>(yourMap, "something_");
MapFilter<String> something_something = new MapFilter<String>(something, "something_");
You will need to make your container into a Map first.
This would only be worthwhile doing if you look for the substrings many times.

convert fetched data into string , string array map

i am fetching a data from sqlite in android which is as follows
URL PHONE
---------------------------------
/test/img1.png 98989898
/test/img1.png 61216121
/test/img2.png 75757575
/test/img2.png 40404040
/test/img3.png 36363636
now i want to create such a map which stores the data as follows
/test/img1.png [98989898 , 61216121 ]
/test/img2.png [75757575 , 40404040 ]
/test/img3.png [36363636]
so that i can pass the whole map to the function which function eventually in background pick up the image url and send the data to the arrays listed to the phone number. so how can i transform the data that i have fetched into the key to string array style ?

I'd create a Map<String, List<String>> (aka "multi-map"). You don't have to know how many phone numbers for a given URL before you start if you use List<String>. That's not so if you choose the array route.
Map<String, List<String>> results = new HashMap<String, List<String>>();
while (rs.next()) {
String url = rs.getString(1);
String phone = rs.getString(2);
List<String> phones = (results.contains(url) ? results.get(url) : new ArrayList<String>());
phones.add(phone);
results.put(url, phones);
}
Google Collections has a multi-map that you can use out of the box, but I think you'll agree that this is sufficient.
If you want to store more items (e.g. name) you should start thinking about an object that encapsulates all of them together into one coherent thing. Java's an object-oriented language. You sound like you're guilty of thinking at too low a level. Strings, primitives, and data structures are building blocks for objects. Perhaps you need a Person here:
package model;
public class Person {
private String name;
private Map<String, List<String>> contacts;
// need constructors and other methods. This one is key
public void addPhone(String url, String phone) {
List<String> phones = (this.contacts.contains(url) ? this.contacts.get(url) : new ArrayList<String>());
phones.add(phone);
this.contacts.put(url, phones);
}
}
I'll leave the rest for you.
If you go this way, you'll need to map a result set into a Person. But you should see the idea from the code I've posted.