Java Collections Framework Analysis - Term Paper Example

Java Collections Framework API Java Collections Framework API Java Collections Framework (JFC) is a coupled set of classes and interfaces that implement commonly reusable collection of data structures. It provides the interfaces that define collections that implement the interfaces. A collection in this context is sometimes referred to as a container since it groups many elements into a single unit. A collection framework is a unified architecture for representing and manipulating collections. A framework comprises of interfaces which are basically a hierarchy of ADTS, implementations and algorithms which are the methods used in the performance of computations including conducting searches and sorting on objects that implement collection interfaces (Becker, 1998). History Since JDK 1.0, the java language has undergone many changes which have included introduction of new classes and standards to the standard library. Before the development of JDK 1.2, there existed no collection framework. The older versions however included data structure classes. Java objects were ordinarily grouped through the array, the vector and the hashtable classes, these were difficult to extend and therefore and, they did not implement a standard member interface (Roseindia.net, 1998). In order to solve the problem of inability to implement standard member interface, several frameworks were implemented. The newly implemented structures solved the problem through the introduction collection data structures as independent frameworks within the suit. Development of collections framework is credited to Joshua Bloch. He based his work on the ideas from Doug Lea who had developed a popular and functional useable collections package and ObjectSpace Genric Collection Library. The Java Development Kit was released in early 1997 as JDK 1.1 it consisted of inner classes addition and AWT event model retooling as some of the main improvements to the programme. Another version, the J2SE 1.2 was released in 1992, it was in this version that the Sun’s JVM and a JIT compiler wer used for the very first time and the collection frameworks, reflections and Java IDL underwent considerable editing. In the year 2000, J2SE was announced, in this version HotSpot JVM, JNDI, JPDA and JavaSound had undergone many alterations. J2SE 1.4 was released in 2002 with a lot changes in the regular expressions that were found in J2SE 1.3. Java SE 6 was announced in December 2006 under the code name Mustang and it improves on the functionality of coding languages. It also has Visual Basic support as well as database manager. Basic Principles and Benefits (Dietel & Dietel, 2009) Principles Java collections framework comes with predesigned interfaces and classes. These enable it to store and manage data groups in a singular unit. In order to enable to enable collection manipulation and representation, the framework has a unified architecture and it is also designed to deal with algorithms and interfaces. There is a number of collections included in a collection framework. These include; implementations which are data structures that can be used in more than one instance, interfaces, which are abstract data types which play the role of collection representation. The interfaces that deal with object oriented programming languages make it possible for the collections to be managed independently. Other collections in the framework include general purpose implementations which are the first implementations in a collection. Algorithms are other collections which are polymorphic collections useable in different collection interfaces (Morin, 2012). The other collections involved include infrastructure and array utilities whose use is for arrays of reference objects and also in primitive objects. Java collections framework API enables a user to make copies of the collections found in the framework. These copies are made through the use of a void constructor which helps in the creation of an copy of a collection of the targeted implementation type. Some Java APIs are free and have a bidirectional map implementation; a good example of these is Google’s guava libraries. The use of standard interfaces eases the process of passing collection and returning. The Hashtable and Vector added new collection implementations, e.g. LinkedList, ArrayList, HashMap, TreeSet, Map etc. Both Set (the practical example is shown within the Figure 1 beneath) and List are acting in Collection interface. The List provides many accessors. If to use an existing already implementation, the code will be shorter and easier to download. Each collection nowadays goes back to an Iterator (type of Enumeration). The bi-directional iteration and updating are now possible. The synchronized versions of collections are dealing with the static class Collections. They are also very useful when undesired changes to collections are happening. Multithreaded programs need a synchronized version of a collection (Oracle, u.d) Benefits Java collections framework API has many benefits some of them are: It increases the speed and quality of programs through the provision of high performance and high quality implementations of algorithms. It makes programming easier by way of providing useful data structures and algorithms. It allows the programmer to avoid spending a lot of time and effort on low level foundational activities and concentrate on the more important parts of the program. It allows APIs that were written separately to operate seamlessly. It makes it easier to learn how to use new APIs It makes it possible for software to be reused since new data structures that conform to standard collection interfaces are naturally reusable (Deitel & Deitel, 2009). Comparison of Java’s collections framework to C++ Apart from Java Collections Framework, there are other collection frameworks which are in the market the most popular of which include C++, Standard Template Library (STL) and Smalltalk’s collection hierarchy (Robert, 1997). There are some common concepts between the two collection frameworks including the listing of sequence values in an order specified by user. Both of them set the collection of values without the need for duplicates. Both collection frameworks also have association lists or look up tables. When a need for storage and use of a collection of values both Java and C++ provide libraries to help with Java providing a collections framework and C++ providing a standard template library. In both instances, the libraries provide general, useful and efficient implementations of common kinds of collections (Robert, 1997). References Becker, D. 1998, Get started with the Java Collections Framework, Retrieved 14 May 2013 http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-11-1998/jw-11-collections.html?page=5 Deitel, Paul; Deitel, Harvey. 2009, Java for Programmers. Prentice Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-700129-3 Morin, P. 2012, Open Data Structures (in Java). Pat Morin. Oracle. The Collections Framework. Available from: http://download.oracle.com/ javase/1.5.0/docs/guide/collections/ Retrieved 14/05/2013. Oracle. Java Platform Ed. 6. Available from: http://download.oracle. com/javase/6/docs/api/ Standard Retrieved 14/05/2013. Introduction to Collections API, 2007, Retrieved 14 May 2013 Robert C. Martin. 1997, "Java vs. C++: A Critical Comparison Read More