Chapter Summary

The following information was included in this chapter:

• an overview of the collections framework in the java.util package: core interfaces and their implementations.

• discussion of the functionality specified by the Collection interface and its role in the collections framework.

• discussion of sets, how their functionality is defined by the Set interface and implemented by HashSet and LinkedHashSet.

• discussion of lists, how their functionality is defined by the List interface and implemented by ArrayList, Vector, and LinkedList.

• discussion of maps, how their functionality is defined by the Map interface and implemented by HashMap, LinkedHashMap, and Hashtable.

• the role of the Comparator and Comparable interfaces for ordering of elements.

• discussion of sorted sets and sorted maps, how their functionality is defined by the SortedSet and SortedMap interfaces and implemented by TreeSet and TreeMap.

• customizing collections for synchronization and data immutability.

• an overview of utility methods found in the Collections and Arrays class.