org.apache.commons.collections
Interface BidiMap

All Superinterfaces:

IterableMap, java.util.Map

All Known Subinterfaces:

OrderedBidiMap, SortedBidiMap

All Known Implementing Classes:

AbstractBidiMapDecorator, AbstractDualBidiMap, AbstractOrderedBidiMapDecorator, AbstractSortedBidiMapDecorator, DualHashBidiMap, DualTreeBidiMap, TreeBidiMap, UnmodifiableBidiMap, UnmodifiableOrderedBidiMap, UnmodifiableSortedBidiMap

public interface BidiMap
extends IterableMap

Defines a map that allows bidirectional lookup between key and values.

This extended Map represents a mapping where a key may lookup a value and a value may lookup a key with equal ease. This interface extends Map and so may be used anywhere a map is required. The interface provides an inverse map view, enabling full access to both directions of the BidiMap.

Implementations should allow a value to be looked up from a key and a key to be looked up from a value with equal performance.

This map enforces the restriction that there is a 1:1 relation between keys and values, meaning that multiple keys cannot map to the same value. This is required so that "inverting" the map results in a map without duplicate keys. See the put(java.lang.Object, java.lang.Object) method description for more information.

Since:

Commons Collections 3.0

Version:

$Revision: 646777 $ $Date: 2008-04-10 13:33:15 +0100 (Thu, 10 Apr 2008) $

Author:

Stephen Colebourne

Nested Class Summary

Nested classes/interfaces inherited from interface java.util.Map

java.util.Map.Entry

Method Summary

java.lang.Object	getKey(java.lang.Object value) Gets the key that is currently mapped to the specified value.
BidiMap	inverseBidiMap() Gets a view of this map where the keys and values are reversed.
MapIterator	mapIterator() Obtains a MapIterator over the map.
java.lang.Object	put(java.lang.Object key, java.lang.Object value) Puts the key-value pair into the map, replacing any previous pair.
java.lang.Object	removeValue(java.lang.Object value) Removes the key-value pair that is currently mapped to the specified value (optional operation).

Methods inherited from interface java.util.Map

clear, containsKey, containsValue, entrySet, equals, get, hashCode, isEmpty, keySet, putAll, remove, size, values

Method Detail

mapIterator

MapIterator mapIterator()

Obtains a MapIterator over the map.

A map iterator is an efficient way of iterating over maps. It does not require that the map is stored using Map Entry objects which can increase performance.

 BidiMap map = new DualHashBidiMap();
 MapIterator it = map.mapIterator();
 while (it.hasNext()) {
   Object key = it.next();
   Object value = it.getValue();
   it.setValue("newValue");
 }
 

Specified by:

mapIterator in interface IterableMap

Returns:

a map iterator

put

java.lang.Object put(java.lang.Object key,
                     java.lang.Object value)

Puts the key-value pair into the map, replacing any previous pair.

When adding a key-value pair, the value may already exist in the map against a different key. That mapping is removed, to ensure that the value only occurs once in the inverse map.

  BidiMap map1 = new DualHashBidiMap();
  map.put("A","B");  // contains A mapped to B, as per Map
  map.put("A","C");  // contains A mapped to C, as per Map
 
  BidiMap map2 = new DualHashBidiMap();
  map.put("A","B");  // contains A mapped to B, as per Map
  map.put("C","B");  // contains C mapped to B, key A is removed
 

Specified by:

put in interface java.util.Map

Parameters:

key - the key to store

value - the value to store

Returns:

the previous value mapped to this key

Throws:

java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException - if the put method is not supported

java.lang.ClassCastException - (optional) if the map limits the type of the value and the specified value is inappropriate

java.lang.IllegalArgumentException - (optional) if the map limits the values in some way and the value was invalid

java.lang.NullPointerException - (optional) if the map limits the values to non-null and null was specified

getKey

java.lang.Object getKey(java.lang.Object value)

Gets the key that is currently mapped to the specified value.

If the value is not contained in the map, null is returned.

Implementations should seek to make this method perform equally as well as get(Object).

Parameters:

value - the value to find the key for

Returns:

the mapped key, or null if not found

Throws:

java.lang.ClassCastException - (optional) if the map limits the type of the value and the specified value is inappropriate

java.lang.NullPointerException - (optional) if the map limits the values to non-null and null was specified

removeValue

java.lang.Object removeValue(java.lang.Object value)

Removes the key-value pair that is currently mapped to the specified value (optional operation).

If the value is not contained in the map, null is returned.

Implementations should seek to make this method perform equally as well as remove(Object).

Parameters:

value - the value to find the key-value pair for

Returns:

the key that was removed, null if nothing removed

Throws:

java.lang.ClassCastException - (optional) if the map limits the type of the value and the specified value is inappropriate

java.lang.NullPointerException - (optional) if the map limits the values to non-null and null was specified

java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException - if this method is not supported by the implementation

inverseBidiMap

BidiMap inverseBidiMap()

Gets a view of this map where the keys and values are reversed.

Changes to one map will be visible in the other and vice versa. This enables both directions of the map to be accessed as a Map.

Implementations should seek to avoid creating a new object every time this method is called. See AbstractMap.values() etc. Calling this method on the inverse map should return the original.

Returns:

an inverted bidirectional map