What is java?
Java is a programming language and computing platform first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. It has evolved from humble beginnings to power a large share of today’s digital world, by providing the reliable platform upon which many services and applications are built. New, innovative products and digital services designed for the future continue to rely on Java, as well.
What is Collection?
In programming, a collection is a class used to represent a set of similar data type items as a single unit. These unit classes are used for grouping and managing related objects.
A collection has an underlying data structure that is used for efficient data manipulation and storage. Code readability and maintenance improves when collections are used in logical constructs.
What is Collection in java?
The Collection in Java is a framework that provides an architecture to store and manipulate a group of objects.
Java Collections can achieve all the operations that you perform on a data such as searching, sorting, insertion, manipulation, and deletion.
Java Collection means a single unit of objects. Java Collection framework provides many interfaces (Set, List, Queue, Deque) and classes (ArrayList, Vector, LinkedList, PriorityQueue, HashSet, LinkedHashSet, TreeSet).
What is Collection framework?
The Collection framework represents a unified architecture for storing and manipulating a group of objects. It has:
Interfaces and its implementations, i.e., classes
Algorithm
Hierarchy of Collection Framework:
Let us see the hierarchy of Collection framework. The java.util package contains all the classes and interfaces for the Collection framework.
Before understanding the different components in the above framework, let’s first understand a class and an interface.
Class: A class is a user-defined blueprint or prototype from which objects are created. It represents the set of properties or methods that are common to all objects of one type.
Interface: Like a class, an interface can have methods and variables, but the methods declared in an interface are by default abstract (only method signature, no body). Interfaces specify what a class must do and not how. It is the blueprint of the class.
Interfaces that extends the Collection Interface:
The collection framework contains multiple interfaces where every interface is used to store a specific type of data. The following are the interfaces present in the framework.
1. Iterable Interface: This is the root interface for the entire collection framework. The collection interface extends the iterable interface. Therefore, inherently, all the interfaces and classes implement this interface. The main functionality of this interface is to provide an iterator for the collections. Therefore, this interface contains only one abstract method which is the iterator
2. Collection Interface: This interface extends the iterable interface and is implemented by all the classes in the collection framework. This interface contains all the basic methods which every collection has like adding the data into the collection, removing the data, clearing the data, etc. All these methods are implemented in this interface because these methods are implemented by all the classes irrespective of their style of implementation
3. List Interface: This is a child interface of the collection interface. This interface is dedicated to the data of the list type in which we can store all the ordered collection of the objects. This also allows duplicate data to be present in it. This list interface is implemented by various classes like ArrayList, Vector, Stack, etc. Since all the subclasses implement the list, we can instantiate a list object with any of these classes
The classes which implement the List interface are as follows:
ArrayList: ArrayList provides us with dynamic arrays in Java. Though, it may be slower than standard arrays but can be helpful in programs where lots of manipulation in the array is needed. The size of an ArrayList is increased automatically if the collection grows or shrinks if the objects are removed from the collection.
LinkedList: LinkedList class is an implementation of the LinkedList data structure which is a linear data structure where the elements are not stored in contiguous locations and every element is a separate object with a data part and address part. The elements are linked using pointers and addresses. Each element is known as a node
Vector: A vector provides us with dynamic arrays in Java. Though, it may be slower than standard arrays but can be helpful in programs where lots of manipulation in the array is needed.
Stack: Stack class models and implements the Stack data structure. The class is based on the basic principle of last-in-first-out. In addition to the basic push and pop operations, the class provides three more functions of empty, search and peek.
4. Queue Interface: As the name suggests, a queue interface maintains the FIFO(First In First Out) order similar to a real-world queue line. This interface is dedicated to storing all the elements where the order of the elements matter. There are various classes like PriorityQueue, ArrayDeque, etc. Since all these subclasses implement the queue
The classes which implement the queue interface are as follows:
Priority Queue: A PriorityQueue is used when the objects are supposed to be processed based on the priority. It is known that a queue follows the First-In-First-Out algorithm, but sometimes the elements of the queue are needed to be processed according to the priority and this class is used in these cases. The PriorityQueue is based on the priority heap. The elements of the priority queue are ordered according to the natural ordering, or by a Comparator provided at queue construction time, depending on which constructor is used.
5. Deque Interface: This is a very slight variation of the queue data structure. Deque, also known as a double-ended queue, is a data structure where we can add and remove the elements from both ends of the queue. This interface extends the queue interface. The class which implements this interface is ArrayDeque.
The class which implements the deque interface is ArrayDeque.
ArrayDeque: ArrayDeque class which is implemented in the collection framework provides us with a way to apply resizable-array. This is a special kind of array that grows and allows users to add or remove an element from both sides of the queue. Array deques have no capacity restrictions and they grow as necessary to support usage.
6. Set Interface: A set is an unordered collection of objects in which duplicate values cannot be stored. This collection is used when we wish to avoid the duplication of the objects and wish to store only the unique objects. This set interface is implemented by various classes like HashSet, TreeSet, LinkedHashSet, etc.
The class which implements the Set Interface is ArrayDeque.
HashSet: The HashSet class is an inherent implementation of the hash table data structure. The objects that we insert into the HashSet do not guarantee to be inserted in the same order. The objects are inserted based on their hashcode. This class also allows the insertion of NULL elements.
LinkedHashSet: A LinkedHashSet is very similar to a HashSet. The difference is that this uses a doubly linked list to store the data and retains the ordering of the elements.
7. Sorted Set Interface: This interface is very similar to the set interface. The only difference is that this interface has extra methods that maintain the ordering of the elements. The sorted set interface extends the set interface and is used to handle the data which needs to be sorted. The class which implements this interface is TreeSet.
The class which implements the sorted set interface is TreeSet.
TreeSet: The TreeSet class uses a Tree for storage. The ordering of the elements is maintained by a set using their natural ordering whether or not an explicit comparator is provided. This must be consistent with equals if it is to correctly implement the Set interface. It can also be ordered by a Comparator provided at set creation time, depending on which constructor is used
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