public class

LinkedHashMap

extends HashMap<K, V>
java.lang.Object
   ↳ java.util.AbstractMap<K, V>
     ↳ java.util.HashMap<K, V>
       ↳ java.util.LinkedHashMap<K, V>

Class Overview

LinkedHashMap is a variant of HashMap. Its entries are kept in a doubly-linked list. The iteration order is, by default, the order in which keys were inserted. Reinserting an already existing key doesn't change the order. A key is existing if a call to containsKey would return true.

If the three argument constructor is used, and order is specified as true, the iteration will be in the order that entries were accessed. The access order gets affected by put(), get(), putAll() operations, but not by operations on the collection views.

Null elements are allowed, and all the optional map operations are supported.

Note: The implementation of LinkedHashMap is not synchronized. If one thread of several threads accessing an instance modifies the map structurally, access to the map needs to be synchronized. For insertion-ordered instances a structural modification is an operation that removes or adds an entry. Access-ordered instances also are structurally modified by put(), get() and putAll() since these methods change the order of the entries. Changes in the value of an entry are not structural changes.

The Iterator that can be created by calling the iterator method throws a ConcurrentModificationException if the map is structurally changed while an iterator is used to iterate over the elements. Only the remove method that is provided by the iterator allows for removal of elements during iteration. It is not possible to guarantee that this mechanism works in all cases of unsynchronized concurrent modification. It should only be used for debugging purposes.

Summary

Public Constructors
LinkedHashMap()
Constructs a new empty LinkedHashMap instance.
LinkedHashMap(int s)
Constructs a new LinkedHashMap instance with the specified capacity.
LinkedHashMap(int s, float lf)
Constructs a new LinkedHashMap instance with the specified capacity and load factor.
LinkedHashMap(int s, float lf, boolean order)
Constructs a new LinkedHashMap instance with the specified capacity, load factor and a flag specifying the ordering behavior.
LinkedHashMap(Map<? extends K, ? extends V> m)
Constructs a new LinkedHashMap instance containing the mappings from the specified map.
Public Methods
void clear()
Removes all elements from this map, leaving it empty.
Set<Entry<K, V>> entrySet()
Returns a set containing all of the mappings in this map.
V get(Object key)
Returns the value of the mapping with the specified key.
Set<K> keySet()
Returns a set of the keys contained in this map.
V put(K key, V value)
Maps the specified key to the specified value.
V remove(Object key)
Removes the mapping with the specified key from this map.
Collection<V> values()
Returns a collection of the values contained in this map.
Protected Methods
boolean removeEldestEntry(Entry<K, V> eldest)
This method is queried from the put and putAll methods to check if the eldest member of the map should be deleted before adding the new member.
[Expand]
Inherited Methods
From class java.util.HashMap
From class java.util.AbstractMap
From class java.lang.Object
From interface java.util.Map

Public Constructors

public LinkedHashMap ()

Constructs a new empty LinkedHashMap instance.

public LinkedHashMap (int s)

Constructs a new LinkedHashMap instance with the specified capacity.

Parameters
s the initial capacity of this map.
Throws
IllegalArgumentException when the capacity is less than zero.

public LinkedHashMap (int s, float lf)

Constructs a new LinkedHashMap instance with the specified capacity and load factor.

Parameters
s the initial capacity of this map.
lf the initial load factor.
Throws
IllegalArgumentException when the capacity is less than zero or the load factor is less or equal to zero.

public LinkedHashMap (int s, float lf, boolean order)

Constructs a new LinkedHashMap instance with the specified capacity, load factor and a flag specifying the ordering behavior.

Parameters
s the initial capacity of this hash map.
lf the initial load factor.
order true if the ordering should be done based on the last access (from least-recently accessed to most-recently accessed), and false if the ordering should be the order in which the entries were inserted.
Throws
IllegalArgumentException when the capacity is less than zero or the load factor is less or equal to zero.

public LinkedHashMap (Map<? extends K, ? extends V> m)

Constructs a new LinkedHashMap instance containing the mappings from the specified map. The order of the elements is preserved.

Parameters
m the mappings to add.

Public Methods

public void clear ()

Removes all elements from this map, leaving it empty.

See Also

public Set<Entry<K, V>> entrySet ()

Returns a set containing all of the mappings in this map. Each mapping is an instance of Map.Entry. As the set is backed by this map, changes in one will be reflected in the other.

Returns
  • a set of the mappings.

public V get (Object key)

Returns the value of the mapping with the specified key.

Parameters
key the key.
Returns
  • the value of the mapping with the specified key, or null if no mapping for the specified key is found.

public Set<K> keySet ()

Returns a set of the keys contained in this map. The set is backed by this map so changes to one are reflected by the other. The set does not support adding.

Returns
  • a set of the keys.

public V put (K key, V value)

Maps the specified key to the specified value.

Parameters
key the key.
value the value.
Returns
  • the value of any previous mapping with the specified key or null if there was no such mapping.

public V remove (Object key)

Removes the mapping with the specified key from this map.

Parameters
key the key of the mapping to remove.
Returns
  • the value of the removed mapping or null if no mapping for the specified key was found.

public Collection<V> values ()

Returns a collection of the values contained in this map. The collection is backed by this map so changes to one are reflected by the other. The collection supports remove, removeAll, retainAll and clear operations, and it does not support add or addAll operations.

This method returns a collection which is the subclass of AbstractCollection. The iterator method of this subclass returns a "wrapper object" over the iterator of map's entrySet(). The size method wraps the map's size method and the contains method wraps the map's containsValue method.

The collection is created when this method is called for the first time and returned in response to all subsequent calls. This method may return different collections when multiple concurrent calls occur, since no synchronization is performed.

Returns
  • a collection of the values contained in this map.

Protected Methods

protected boolean removeEldestEntry (Entry<K, V> eldest)

This method is queried from the put and putAll methods to check if the eldest member of the map should be deleted before adding the new member. If this map was created with accessOrder = true, then the result of removeEldestEntry is assumed to be false.

Parameters
eldest the entry to check if it should be removed.
Returns
  • true if the eldest member should be removed.