HashMap in Java with Examples

HashMap is a part of Java’s collection since Java 1.2. It provides the basic implementation of the Map interface of Java. It stores the data in (Key, Value) pairs. To access a value one must know its key. HashMap is known as HashMap because it uses a technique called Hashing. Hashing is a technique of converting a large String to small String that represents the same String. A shorter value helps in indexing and faster searches. HashSet also uses HashMap internally. It internally uses a link list to store key-value pairs already explained in HashSet in detail and further articles.
Few important features of HashMap are:

• HashMap is a part of java.util package.
• HashMap extends an abstract class AbstractMap which also provides an incomplete implementation of Map interface.
• It also implements Cloneable and Serializable interface. K and V in the above definition represent Key and Value respectively.
• HashMap doesn’t allow duplicate keys but allows duplicate values. That means A single key can’t contain more than 1 value but more than 1 key can contain a single value.
• HashMap allows null key also but only once and multiple null values.
• This class makes no guarantees as to the order of the map; in particular, it does not guarantee that the order will remain constant over time. It is roughly similar to HashTable but is unsynchronized.

Internal Structure of HashMap

Internally HashMap contains an array of Node and a node is represented as a class which contains 4 fields:

1. int hash
2. K key
3. V value
4. Node next

It can be seen that the node is containing a reference of its object. So it’s a linked list.
HashMap:
 

Performance of HashMap

Performance of HashMap depends on 2 parameters:

1. Initial Capacity
2. Load Factor

As already said, Capacity is simply the number of buckets whereas the Initial Capacity is the capacity of HashMap instance when it is created. The Load Factor is a measure that when rehashing should be done. Rehashing is a process of increasing the capacity. In HashMap capacity is multiplied by 2. Load Factor is also a measure that what fraction of the HashMap is allowed to fill before rehashing. When the number of entries in HashMap increases the product of current capacity and load factor the capacity is increased that is rehashing is done. If the initial capacity is kept higher then rehashing will never be done. But by keeping it higher it increases the time complexity of iteration. So it should be chosen very cleverly to increase performance. The expected number of values should be taken into account to set initial capacity. Most generally preferred load factor value is 0.75 which provides a good deal between time and space costs. The load factor’s value varies between 0 and 1.

Synchronized HashMap

As it is told that HashMap is unsynchronized i.e. multiple threads can access it simultaneously. If multiple threads access this class simultaneously and at least one thread manipulates it structurally then it is necessary to make it synchronized externally. It is done by synchronizing some object which encapsulates the map. If No such object exists then it can be wrapped around Collections.synchronizedMap() to make HashMap synchronized and avoid accidental unsynchronized access. As in the following example:

Map m = Collections.synchronizedMap(new HashMap(...));

Now the Map m is synchronized.

Iterators of this class are fail-fast if any structure modification is done after the creation of iterator, in any way except through the iterator’s remove method. In a failure of iterator, it will throw ConcurrentModificationException.

Constructors in HashMap

HashMap provides 4 constructors and access modifier of each is public:

1. HashMap(): It is the default constructor that creates an instance of HashMap with initial capacity 16 and load factor 0.75.
2. HashMap(int initial capacity): It creates a HashMap instance with specified initial capacity and load factor 0.75.
3. HashMap(int initial capacity, float load factor): It creates a HashMap instance with specified initial capacity and specified load factor.
4. HashMap(Map map): It creates an instance of HashMap with the same mappings as the specified map.

Example:

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Output:

map is empty
Size of map is:- 3
{vaibhav=20, vishal=10, sachin=30}
value for key "vishal" is:- 10
map is empty

The time complexity of HashMap

HashMap provides constant time complexity for basic operations, gets and put if the hash function is properly written and it disperses the elements properly among the buckets. Iteration over HashMap depends on the capacity of HashMap and several key-value pairs. It is directly proportional to the capacity + size. Capacity is the number of buckets in HashMap. So it is not a good idea to keep a high number of buckets in HashMap initially.

Methods in HashMap

1. void clear(): Used to remove all mappings from a map.
2. boolean containsKey(Object key): Used to return True if, for a specified key, mapping is present in the map.
3. boolean contains the value(Object value): Used to return true if one or more key is mapped to a specified value.
4. Object clone(): It is used to return a shallow copy of the mentioned hash map.
5. boolean isEmpty(): Used to check whether the map is empty or not. Returns true if the map is empty.
6. Set entrySet(): It is used to return a set view of the hash map.
7. Object get(Object key): It is used to retrieve or fetch the value mapped by a particular key.
8. Set keySet(): It is used to return a set view of the keys.
9. int size(): It is used to return the size of a map.
10. Object put(Object key, Object value): It is used to insert a particular mapping of key-value pairs into a map.
11. putAll(Map M): It is used to copy all of the elements from one map into another.
12. Object remove(Object key): It is used to remove the values for any particular key in the Map.
13. Collection values(): It is used to return a Collection view of the values in the HashMap.
14. compute(K key, BiFunction<K, V> remapping function): This method Attempts to compute a mapping for the specified key and its current mapped value (or null if there is no current mapping).
15. computer absent(K key, Function<K> mapping function): This method If the specified key is not already associated with a value (or is mapped to null), attempts to compute its value using the given mapping function and enters it into this map unless null.
16. computeIfPresent(K key, BiFunction<K, V> remapping function): This method If the value for the specified key is present and non-null, attempts to compute a new mapping given the key and its current mapped value.
17. forEach(BiConsumer<K, V> action): This method Performs the given action for each entry in this map until all entries have been processed or the action throws an exception.
18. get the default(Object key, V defaultValue): This method returns the value to which the specified key is mapped, or defaultValue if this map contains no mapping for the key.
19. merge(K key, V value, BiFunction<K, V> remapping function): This method If the specified key is not already associated with a value or is associated with null, associates it with the given non-null value.
20. putIfAbsent(K key, V value): This method If the specified key is not already associated with a value (or is mapped to null) associates it with the given value and returns null, else returns the current value.
21. replace(K key, V value): This method replaces the entry for the specified key only if it is currently mapped to some value.
22. replace(K key, V oldValue, V newValue): This method replaces the entry for the specified key only if currently mapped to the specified value.
23. replaceAll(BiFunction<K, V> function): This method replaces each entry’s value with the result of invoking the given function on that entry until all entries have been processed or the function throws an exception.

Related Articles:

• Hashmap vs Treemap
• Hashmap vs HashTable

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