Best way to load strings into a cache - java

I am building a couple of methods which are supposed to create a cache of input strings, load them in to a list, and then determine the number of occurrences of each string in that list, ranking them in order of the most common elements.
The string, or elements themselves are coming from a JUnit test. It's calling up a method called
lookupDistance(dest)
where "dest" is a String (destination airport code), and the lookupDistance returns the distance between two airport codes....
There's the background. The problem is that I want to load all of the "dest" strings in to a cache. What's the best way to do that?
I have skeleton code that has a method called:
public List<String> mostCommonDestinations()
How would I add "dest" strings to the List in a transparent way? The JUnit test case is only calling lookupDistance(dest), so how can I also redirect those "dest" strings to the List in this method?
How would I then quantify the number of occurrences of each element and say, rank the top three or four?

Have a Map<String, Integer> destinations = new HashMap<>();
In lookupDistance(dest), do something like this (untested pseudocode):
Integer count = destinations.get(dest);
if (count == null) {
destinations.put(dest, Integer.valueOf(1));
} else {
count = Integer.valueOf(count.intValue() + 1);
}
This way, you count the occurences of each dest.
Go through the Map and find the highest counts. That's a bit tricky. One approach might be:
List> list = new ArrayList<>();
list.addAll(destinations.entrySet());
// now you have a list of "entries", each of which maps from dest to its respective counter
// that list now has to be sorted
Collections.sort(list, comparator);
The comparator we used in this invocation has still to be written. It has to take two arguments, which are elements of the list, and compare them according to their counter value. the sort routine will do the rest.
Comparator<Map.Entry<String, Integer>> comparator = new Comparator<>() {
public #Override int compare(Map.Entry<String, Integer> a, Map.Entry<String, Integer> b) {
return a.getValue().intValue() - b.getValue().intValue();
}
}
Ok, so we have a sorted List of Entrys now from which you can pick the top 5 or so. Think that's pretty much it. All this looks more complicated than it should be, so I'm curios for other solutions.

You can add known destination at startup and keep adding new strings to cache as they arrive. That's one way. The other way is to cache strings as they are requested, keeping them for future request. In that case your lookupDistance should also cache string.
Start by making a small class that contains a Hashmap. The key would be your destination string, and the value can either be an object if you want to keep multiple information or just a number specifying how many times that string is used. I would recommend using a data object.
Please note that code below is just to you an idea, more like a pseudo-code.
class Cache {
private Hashmap<String, CacheObject>;
public void Add(string, CacheObject);
public CacheObject Lookup(string);
public CacheObject Remove(string);
public static Cache getInstance(); //single cache
}
class CacheObject {
public int lookupCount;
public int lastUsed;
}
In your lookupDistance you can simply do
if(Cache.getInstance().Lookup(string) == null) {
Cache.getInstance().Add(string, new CacheObject() { 1, Date.now});
}

Related

Sorting LinkedHashMap<String, String[]>.entrySet() by the keys, but in the middle of the keys using a regex

I have a LinkedHashMap which maps strings to string arrays.
The keys have the format of something like this: "xxx (yyy(0.123))"
Basically, I want to be able to sort the entry set in such a way that it sorts it by the decimal part, and not the beginning of the string. What I have done so far is converting the entry set to an ArrayList so that I can try calling Arrays.sort on it, but obviously that's going to just sort by the beginning of the string.
What I'm currently thinking is that I would have to go through this array, convert each key in the pair to a custom class with a comparator that compares the way I want it to (with the regular expression .*\((.*)\)\) to find the decimal). However, that sounds like a bunch of unnecessary overhead, so I was wondering if there was a simpler way. Thanks in advance.
First, you cannot "sort" a LinkedHashMap. LinkedHashMap maintain the iteration order based on the order of insertion.
If you means creating another LinkedHashMap by inserting using values from the original map, with order based on sorted order: You need to be aware of any new entries added after your initial construction will be unsorted. So you may want to create an unmodifiable Map.
For the Comparator implementation, you do not need to make it to your custom class. Just create a comparator that do the comparison is good enough.
Like this:
(haven't compiled, just to show you the idea)
// assume the key is in format of "ABCDE,12345", and you want to sort by the numeric part:
Map<String, Foo> oldMap = ....; // assume you populated something in it
Map<String, Foo> sortedMap
= new TreeMap((a,b) -> {
// here I use split(), you can use regex
int aNum = Integer.valueOf(a.split(",")[1]);
int bNum = Integer.valueOf(b.split(",")[1]);
if (aNum != bNum ) {
return aNum - bNum;
} else {
return a.compareTo(b);
});
sortedMap.addAll(oldMap);
// now sortedMap contains your entries in sorted order.
// you may construct a new LinkedHashMap with it or do whatever you want
Your solution sounds fine.
If you run into performance issues, you could look buffering the decimal value by replacing your strings with an object that contains the string and the decimal value. Then it does not need to be recalculated multiple times during the sort.
There are trade offs for the buffered solution as above and figuring out which technique is optimal will really depend on your entire solution.
Is there a reason you need to use LinkedHashMap? The javadoc specifically states
This linked list defines the iteration ordering, which is normally the order in which keys were inserted into the map (insertion-order)
TreeMap seems a better fit for what you're trying to achieve, which allows you to provide a Comparator at construction. Using Java 8, this could be achieved with something like:
private static final String DOUBLE_REGEX = "(?<value>\\d+(?:\\.\\d+)?)";
private static final String FIND_REGEX = "[^\\d]*\\(" + DOUBLE_REGEX + "\\)[^\\d]*";
private static final Pattern FIND_PATTERN = Pattern.compile(FIND_REGEX);
private static final Comparator<String> COMPARATOR = Comparator.comparingDouble(
s -> {
final Matcher matcher = FIND_PATTERN.matcher(s);
if (!matcher.find()) {
throw new IllegalArgumentException("Cannot compare key: " + s);
}
return Double.parseDouble(matcher.group("value"));
});
private final Map<String, List<String>> map = new TreeMap<>(COMPARATOR);
Edit: If it has to be a LinkedHashMap (yours), you can always:
map.putAll(yours);
yours.clear();
yours.putAll(map);

Comparison Error when Storing values in a List, Boolean Map

I have a fully working version of MineSweeper implemented in Java. However, I am trying to add an additional feature that updates a Map to store the indexes of the locations of the mines within a 2D array. For example, if location [x][y] holds a mine, I am storing a linked list containing x and y, which maps to a boolean that is true to indicate that the space holds a mine. (This feature is seemingly trivial, but I am just doing this to practice with Collections in Java.)
My relevant private instance variables include:
public Class World{ ...
private LinkedList<Integer> index;
private Map<LinkedList<Integer>, Boolean> revealed;
"index" is the list to be stored in the map as the key for each boolean.
In my constructor I have:
public World(){ ...
tileArr = new Tile[worldWidth][worldHeight];
revealed = new TreeMap<LinkedList<Integer>, Boolean>();
index = new LinkedList<Integer>();
... }
Now, in the method in which I place the mines, I have the following:
private void placeBomb(){
int x = ran.nextInt(worldWidth); //Random stream
int y = ran.nextInt(worldHeight); //Random stream
if (!tileArr[x][y].isBomb()){
tileArr[x][y].setBomb(true);
index.add(x); //ADDED COMPONENT
index.add(y);
revealed.put(index, true);
index.remove(x);
index.remove(y); //END OF ADDED COMPONENT
} else placeBomb();
}
Without the marked added component my program runs fine, and I have a fully working game. However, this addition gives me the following error.
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ClassCastException: java.util.LinkedList
cannot be cast to java.lang.Comparable
If anyone could help point out where this error might be, it would be very helpful! This is solely for additional practice with collections and is not required to run the game.
There are actually about 3 issues here. One that you know about, one that you don't and a third which is just that using LinkedList as a key for a map is clunky.
The ClassCastException happens because TreeMap is a sorted set and requires that every key in it implement the Comparable interface, or else you have to provide a custom Comparator. LinkedList doesn't implement Comparable, so you get an exception. The solution here could be to use a different map, like HashMap, or you could write a custom Comparator.
A custom Comparator could be like this:
revealed = new TreeMap<List<Integer>, Boolean>(
// sort by x value first
Comparator.comparing( list -> list.get(0) )
// then sort by y if both x values are the same
.thenComparing( list -> list.get(1) )
);
(And I felt compelled to include this, which is a more robust example that isn't dependent on specific elements at specific indexes):
revealed = new TreeMap<>(new Comparator<List<Integer>>() {
#Override
public int compare(List<Integer> lhs, List<Integer> rhs) {
int sizeComp = Integer.compare(lhs.size(), rhs.size());
if (sizeComp != 0) {
return sizeComp;
}
Iterator<Integer> lhsIter = lhs.iterator();
Iterator<Integer> rhsIter = rhs.iterator();
while ( lhsIter.hasNext() && rhsIter.hasNext() ) {
int intComp = lhsIter.next().compareTo( rhsIter.next() );
if (intComp != 0) {
return intComp;
}
}
return 0;
}
});
The issue that you don't know about is that you're only ever adding one LinkedList to the map:
index.add(x);
index.add(y);
// putting index in to the map
// without making a copy
revealed.put(index, true);
// modifying index immediately
// afterwards
index.remove(x);
index.remove(y);
This is unspecified behavior, because you put the key in, then modify it. The documentation for Map says the following about this:
Note: great care must be exercised if mutable objects are used as map keys. The behavior of a map is not specified if the value of an object is changed in a manner that affects equals comparisons while the object is a key in the map.
What will actually happen (for TreeMap) is that you are always erasing the previous mapping. (For example, the first time you call put, let's say x=0 and y=0. Then the next time around, you set the list so that x=1 and y=1. This also modifies the list inside the map, so that when put is called, it finds there was already a key with x=1 and y=1 and replaces the mapping.)
So you could fix this by saying something like either of the following:
// copying the List called index
revealed.put(new LinkedList<>(index), true);
// this makes more sense to me
revealed.put(Arrays.asList(x, y), true);
However, this leads me to the 3rd point.
There are better ways to do this, if you want practice with collections. One way would be to use a Map<Integer, Map<Integer, Boolean>>, like this:
Map<Integer, Map<Integer, Boolean>> revealed = new HashMap<>();
{
revealed.computeIfAbsent(x, HashMap::new).put(y, true);
// the preceding line is the same as saying
// Map<Integer, Boolean> yMap = revealed.get(x);
// if (yMap == null) {
// yMap = new HashMap<>();
// revealed.put(x, yMap);
// }
// yMap.put(y, true);
}
That is basically like a 2D array, but with a HashMap. (It could make sense if you had a very, very large game board.)
And judging by your description, it sounds like you already know that you could just make a boolean isRevealed; variable in the Tile class.
From the spec of a treemap gives me this:
The map is sorted according to the natural ordering of its keys, or by a Comparator provided at map creation time, depending on which constructor is used.
The Java Linkedlist can not be compared just like that. You have to give it a way to compare them or just use another type of map, that does not need sorting.

Java: See if ArrayList contains ArrayList with duplicate values

I'm currently trying to create a method that determine if an ArrayList(a2) contains an ArrayList(a1), given that both lists contain duplicate values (containsAll wouldn't work as if an ArrayList contains duplicate values, then it would return true regardless of the quantity of the values)
This is what I have: (I believe it would work however I cannot use .remove within the for loop)
public boolean isSubset(ArrayList<Integer> a1, ArrayList<Integer> a2) {
Integer a1Size= a1.size();
for (Integer integer2:a2){
for (Integer integer1: a1){
if (integer1==integer2){
a1.remove(integer1);
a2.remove(integer2);
if (a1Size==0){
return true;
}
}
}
}
return false;
}
Thanks for the help.
Updated
I think the clearest statement of your question is in one of your comments:
Yes, the example " Example: [dog,cat,cat,bird] is a match for
containing [cat,dog] is false but containing [cat,cat,dog] is true?"
is exactly what I am trying to achieve.
So really, you are not looking for a "subset", because these are not sets. They can contain duplicate elements. What you are really saying is you want to see whether a1 contains all the elements of a2, in the same amounts.
One way to get to that is to count all the elements in both lists. We can get such a count using this method:
private Map<Integer, Integer> getCounter (List<Integer> list) {
Map<Integer, Integer> counter = new HashMap<>();
for (Integer item : list) {
counter.put (item, counter.containsKey(item) ? counter.get(item) + 1 : 1);
}
return counter;
}
We'll rename your method to be called containsAllWithCounts(), and it will use getCounter() as a helper. Your method will also accept List objects as its parameters, rather than ArrayList objects: it's a good practice to specify parameters as interfaces rather than implementations, so you are not tied to using ArrayList types.
With that in mind, we simply scan the counts of the items in a2 and see that they are the same in a1:
public boolean containsAllWithCounts(List<Integer> a1, List<Integer> a2) {
Map<Integer,Integer> counterA1 = getCounter(a1);
Map<Integer,Integer> counterA2 = getCounter(a2);
boolean containsAll = true;
for (Map.Entry<Integer, Integer> entry : counterA2.entrySet ()) {
Integer key = entry.getKey();
Integer count = entry.getValue();
containsAll &= counterA1.containsKey(key) && counterA1.get(key).equals(count);
if (!containsAll) break;
}
return containsAll;
}
If you like, I can rewrite this code to handle arbitrary types, not just Integer objects, using Java generics. Also, all the code can be shortened using Java 8 streams (which I originally used - see comments below). Just let me know in comments.
if you want remove elements from list you have 2 choices:
iterate over copy
use concurrent list implementation
see also:
http://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/util/Collections.html#synchronizedList-java.util.List-
btw why you don't override contains method ??
here you use simple Object like "Integer" what about when you will be using List< SomeComplexClass > ??
example remove with iterator over copy:
List<Integer> list1 = new ArrayList<Integer>();
List<Integer> list2 = new ArrayList<Integer>();
List<Integer> listCopy = new ArrayList<>(list1);
Iterator<Integer> iterator1 = listCopy.iterator();
while(iterator1.hasNext()) {
Integer next1 = iterator1.next();
Iterator<Integer> iterator2 = list2.iterator();
while (iterator2.hasNext()) {
Integer next2 = iterator2.next();
if(next1.equals(next2)) list1.remove(next1);
}
}
see also this answer about iterator:
Concurrent Modification exception
also don't use == operator to compare objects :) instead use equal method
about use of removeAll() and other similarly methods:
keep in mind that many classes that implements list interface don't override all methods from list interface - so you can end up with unsupported operation exception - thus I prefer "low level" binary/linear/mixed search in this case.
and for comparison of complex classes objects you will need override equal and hashCode methods
f you want to remove the duplicate values, simply put the arraylist(s) into a HashSet. It will remove the duplicates based on equals() of your object.
- Olga
In Java, HashMap works by using hashCode to locate a bucket. Each bucket is a list of items residing in that bucket. The items are scanned, using equals for comparison. When adding items, the HashMap is resized once a certain load percentage is reached.
So, sometimes it will have to compare against a few items, but generally it's much closer to O(1) than O(n).
in short - there is no need to use more resources (memory) and "harness" unnecessary classes - as hash map "get" method gets very expensive as count of item grows.
hashCode -> put to bucket [if many item in bucket] -> get = linear scan
so what counts in removing items ?
complexity of equals and hasCode and used of proper algorithm to iterate
I know this is maybe amature-ish, but...
There is no need to remove the items from both lists, so, just take it from the one list
public boolean isSubset(ArrayList<Integer> a1, ArrayList<Integer> a2) {
for(Integer a1Int : a1){
for (int i = 0; i<a2.size();i++) {
if (a2.get(i).equals(a1Int)) {
a2.remove(i);
break;
}
}
if (a2.size()== 0) {
return true;
}
}
return false;
}
If you want to remove the duplicate values, simply put the arraylist(s) into a HashSet. It will remove the duplicates based on equals() of your object.

guava - Iterables avoid iterating multiple times

I have a list of objects that contains two string properties.
public class A {
public String a;
public String b;
}
I want to retrieve two Sets one containing property a and one b.
The naive approach is something long these lines:
List<A> list = ....
Set<String> listofa = new HashSet<>();
Set<String> listofb = new HashSet<>();
for (A item : list) {
if (item.a != null)
listofa.add(item.a);
if (item.b != null)
listofb.add(item.b);
}
Trying to do in a functional way in guava I ended up with this approach:
Function<String,A> getAFromList = new Function<>() {
#Nullable
#Override
public String apply(#Nullable A input) {
return input.a;
}
};
Function<String,A> getBFromList = Function<>() {
#Nullable
#Override
public String apply(#Nullable A input) {
return input.b;
}
};
FluentIterable<A> iterables = FluentIterable.from(list);
Set<String> listofAs = ImmutableSet.copyOf(iterables.transform(getAFromList).filter(Predicates.notNull()));
Set<String> listofBs = ImmutableSet.copyOf(iterables.transform(getBFromList).filter(Predicates.notNull()));
However this way I would iterate twice over the list.
Is there any way how to avoid iterating twice or multiple times ?
In general how does one solve these uses cases in a functional way in general (not only in guava/java) ?
Firstly you're after an optimisation - but if performance is key, use regular java methods over guava (i.e. your first method). See here.
I think because you want two results, at some point you will need to iterate twice (unless you pass in one of the sets to be populated but that that is definitely not a fp approach as it would not be a pure function).
However if iteration was expensive enough to need an optimisation you would iterate that once to an intermediate structure:
a_b_pairs = transformToJustAB(input) //single expensive iteration
list_of_a = transformA(a_b_pairs) //multiple cheaper iterations
list_of_b = transformB(a_b_pairs)
So the simple answer is that you have to iterate twice. Think about it. If you have N elements in your List you will need to do N inserts into the first Set and N inserts into the second Set. Functional or otherwise, you will have to iterate N twice whether it be on conversion (extraction) or insert.
If you were going for two Lists it would be different because you could create views and only iterate as needed.
This can be solved in one iteration with Multimaps.index:
Function<A, String> filterAB = new Function<A, String>() {
#Override
public String apply(A input) {
if (input.a != null) {
return "a";
}
if (input.b != null) {
return "b";
}
return "empty";
}
};
ImmutableListMultimap<String, A> partitionedMap = Multimaps.index(list, filterAB);
The output will be a Guava Multimap with three separate entries for:
an immutable list with all "a-not-null" objects under key "a".
an immutable list with all "b-not-null" objects under key "b".
and possibly an immutable list with objects where both a and b is null under key "empty".
What you're trying to achieve is partitioning or splitting of the collection using predicates.
With Guava, you can use Multimap.index. See related question and answer here.

How to make two dimensional LinkedList in java?

for example:
public static LinkedList<String, Double> ll = new LinkedList<String, Double>;
from your question, I think (not 100% sure) you are looking for
java.util.LinkedHashMap<K, V>
in your case, it would be LinkedHashMap<String, Double>
from java doc:
Hash table and linked list implementation of the Map interface, with
predictable iteration order. This implementation differs from HashMap
in that it maintains a doubly-linked list running through all of its
entries.
if you do want to get element by list.get(5), you could :
LinkedList<Entry<String, Double>>
so you can get Entry element by Entry entry = list.get(5), then entry.getKey() gives you the STring, and entry.getValue() gives you the Double.
Reading all your comments, I suggest you do something like this:
public class StringAndDouble {
private String str;
private double dbl;
// add constructor
// add getters, setters and other methods as needed.
// override equals() and hashCode()
}
Now you can use:
List<StringAndDouble> list = new LinkedList<>(); // or
List<StringAndDouble> list = new ArrayList<>(); // better in most cases
Now you can access your objects by index.
This answer creates a new class, to fit your needs. The class has two fields, one String, one double. This doesn't make the class two dimensional. I think you have a misunderstanding there. When there are n dimensions, you need n indexes to access an element. You were talking of accessing by index, so I assume you're looking for a one dimensional list holding the objects, that have more than one field.
Do you mean like this?
HashMap<String, Double> hm = new HashMap<String, Double>();
Since OP in a comment to #Kent says he wants to be able to get items by index...
Note that a LinkedList (and LinkedHashMap) are inefficient at that. He may prefer an ArrayList. So I would suggest that his "2D" implementation be a
ArrayList<Map.Entry<String, Double>>
which will efficiently support a get by index.
As for the normal get(String key), you'd have to do a linear search of all the entries, which would be inefficient.
So, you have a decision: which way of accessing (by a key or by an index) is more important?
You can actually use Linked Lists within eachother...
For Example:
public LinkedList<LinkedList<Integer>> twoDimLinkedList = new LinkedList<LinkedList<Integer>>();
Then:
////////////////
int value = twoDimLinkedList.get(3).get(4);
/////////////////
or (If you were planning on using it for iterative purposes):
/////////////////
for (int i = 0; i < twoDimLinkedList.size(); i++) {
LinkedList<Integer> twoDimLinkedListRow = new LinkedList<Integer>();
for (int m = 0; m < twoDimLinkedList.get(i).size(); m++) {
twoDimLinkedListRow.add(value);
}
twoDimLinkedList.add(twoDimLinkedListRow);
}
////////////////

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