Core Java for the Impatient, 3rd Edition

Chapter 7

Collections

Topics in This Chapter

• 7.1 An Overview of the Collections Framework

• 7.2 Iterators

• 7.3 Sets

• 7.4 Maps

• 7.5 Other Collections

• 7.6 Views

• Exercises

Many data structures have been developed so programmers can store and retrieve values efficiently. The Java API provides implementations of common data structures and algorithms, as well as a framework to organize them. In this chapter, you will learn how to work with lists, sets, maps, and other collections.

The key points of this chapter are:

1. The Collection interface provides common methods for all collections, except for maps which are described by the Map interface.

2. A list is a sequential collection in which each element has an integer index.

3. A set is optimized for efficient ...