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Java Java Data Structures - Retired Exploring the Java Collection Framework Sets

tomtrnka
tomtrnka
9,780 Points
Posted by tomtrnka
tomtrnka
9,780 Points

How to write a method for printing all items from Lists AND Sets?

I was trying out some things with lists and sets, and i got tired of copying multiple rows of code, just so I could see the content of lists/sets printed in console. (im not using repl, using IntelliJ Idea).

I got some ArrayLists, HashSets and TreeSets - all with generic type of String.

I wanted to write a single method, which would take any list or any set as a parameter. This method would print out all the strings inside arrayList/hashSet/treeSet,

At the beginning, I wrote these 2 methods:

public void printList(List nameOfSetOrList) {
        for (Object language : nameOfSetOrList) {
            System.out.println(language);
        }
    }

public void printSet(Set nameOfSetOrList) {
        for (Object language : nameOfSetOrList) {
            System.out.println(language);
        }
    }

Then I merged them together like this:

public void printListOrSet(Object nameOfListOrSet) {
        if (nameOfListOrSet instanceof List) {
            List<String> myList = (List) nameOfListOrSet;
            for (String list : myList) {
                System.out.println(list);
            }
        } else if (nameOfListOrSet instanceof Set) {
            Set<String> mySet = (Set) nameOfListOrSet;
            for (String set : mySet) {
                System.out.println(set);
            }
        }
    }

Any idea how to rewrite this mess so its simpler and cleaner?

Thank you

3 Answers

Seth Kroger
Seth Kroger
56,414 Points
Seth Kroger
Seth Kroger
56,414 Points

Both List and Set are both part of the Collections Framework. Part of that means that they both descend from the same superclass, Collection. Perhaps you could use that fact to clean things up?

tomtrnka
tomtrnka
9,780 Points
tomtrnka
tomtrnka
9,780 Points

Thank you! Youre absolutely right!

Works fine :-)

public void printListOrSet(Collection nameOfListOrSet) {
            for (Object list : nameOfListOrSet) {
                System.out.println(list);
            }
    }
markmneimneh
markmneimneh
14,132 Points
markmneimneh
markmneimneh
14,132 Points

I would check the switch statement

https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/java/nutsandbolts/switch.html

Hope this helps ... if this answers your question, please mark the question as answered.

Thanks

Tomas Verblya
Tomas Verblya
1,998 Points
Tomas Verblya
Tomas Verblya
1,998 Points

Could not quote the post I wanted to and I'm not sure how to format the code, cause the cheatsheet doesn't open :( . But I'd like to understand the part here :

public void printListOrSet(Collection nameOfListOrSet) { for (Object list : nameOfListOrSet) { System.out.println(list); } }

OBJECT list. Why is this an object? Why not a Collection?

Seth Kroger
Seth Kroger
56,414 Points
Seth Kroger
Seth Kroger
56,414 Points

The code is iterating through all the items of the Collection. So we're dealing with individual items, not collections. Since the generic type was left unspecified (i.e., there is no <ClassName> after Collection) we use Object.