Java Collections API HashSet remove method - java

I encountered this issue while working with the Java Collections API. Basically this is a support method for an implementation of Kruskal's algorithm for finding an MST. I created this class for implementing the union/find algorithm.
My question, as I was able to find a work around, is that does anybody know of any reason why the remove method in the "union" method would not work consistently. That is at run time it would remove some elements and not others. For example I implemented this for a task involving cities and it seemed to not like removing some cities. In particular it repeatedly stumbled on a couple of different sets, but always the same ones. I wondered whether it was a object reference issue, i.e. whether I was testing the wrong thing, but I could not get around it.
I know the rest of my work was correct as I was able to replace it with a loop that eliminated the element, and the algorithm executed perfectly. Probably with slightly worse performance, however.
I was wondering whether anybody can see a mistake. Also I should note that I called it from different class, however, the calls were made with elements that were retrieved using the find method. Note that the find method must work well, since simply altering the remove method made the whole thing work, i.e. it was finding and returning the appropriate objects.
Thanks
Oscar
/*
* A constructor for creating a new object of this class.
*/
DisjointSets()
{
underlying = new HashSet<HashSet<String>>();
}
/*
* A method for adding a set to this DisjointSets object
*/
void add(HashSet<String> h)
{
underlying.add(h);
}
/*
* A method for finding an element in this DisjointSet object.
*/
HashSet<String> find(String s)
{
// Check each set in the DisjointSets object
for(HashSet<String> h: underlying)
{
if(h.contains(s))
{
return h;
}
}
return null;
}
/*
* A method for combining to subsets of the DisjointSets
*/
void union(HashSet<String> h1, HashSet<String> h2)
{
System.out.print("CHECK ON DS\n");
System.out.print("*********************\n");
System.out.print("H1 is : { ");
for (HashSet<String> n: underlying)
{
System.out.print("Set is : { ");
for (String h : n)
{
System.out.print(h + " , ");
}
System.out.print("} \n ");
}
// Add the objects of h1 to h2
// DOES NOT WORK CONSISTENTLY
h1.addAll(h2);
underlying.remove(h2);
}
}
And I replaced it with
HashSet<HashSet<String>> temp = new HashSet<HashSet<String>>();
for(HashSet<String> f: underlying)
{
if(f != h2)
{
temp.add(f);
}
}
underlying = temp;

The problem is that when you modify the contents of one of the nested HashSets, you screw up the internals of the outer HashSet (because the hashCode() of the nested HashSet has changed). in order to maintain this collection correctly, whenever you want to modify one of the nested HashSets you must first remove it from the outer HashSet and then re-add it (if necessary).
(you don't really provide enough code to figure out if that's truly the problem, but that's my best guess).
Set<Set<String>> outerSet = new HashSet<String>();
Set<String> innerSet = new HashSet<String>();
innerSet.add("foo");
outerSet.add(innerSet);
// *** BROKEN ***
innerSet.add("bar"); // <- adding element to innerSet changes result of innerSet.hashCode()
outerSet.remove(innerSet); // <- this may or may not work because outerSet is _broken_
// *** BROKEN ***
// *** CORRECT ***
outerSet.remove(innerSet);
innerSet.add("bar");
// now you can put innerSet back in outerSet if necessary

Following up on #jtahlborn's answer, the contract for AbstractSet.hashCode() says
Returns the hash code value for this
set. The hash code of a set is defined
to be the sum of the hash codes of the
elements in the set. This ensures that
s1.equals(s2) implies that
s1.hashCode()==s2.hashCode() for any
two sets s1 and s2, as required by the
general contract of Object.hashCode.
This implementation enumerates over
the set, calling the hashCode method
on each element in the collection, and
adding up the results.
Code to demonstrate #jtahlborn's answer (which is correct)
import java.util.HashSet;
import java.util.Set;
public class TestHashSetHashCode {
public static void main(String[] args)
{
Set<String> strings = new HashSet<String>();
strings.add("one");
strings.add("two");
strings.add("three");
strings.add("four");
strings.add("five");
Set<String> test = new HashSet<String>();
System.out.println("Code "+test.hashCode());
for (String s : strings) {
test.add(s);
System.out.println("Code "+test.hashCode());
}
}
}
Outputs
Code 0
Code 115276
Code 3258622
Code 3368804
Code 113708290
Code 116857384
One more reason to add to the list to make use of immutable collections wherever possible.

Related

Java List removing items without any action

I'm facing a weird behavior in my Java code using List.
The code is very simple, I have a List of Object called AccessRequest which comes from a database and I'm using this first List to create a new one but with a filter to select only a few objects.
Here is the code :
private void updateCommentIfNeeded() {
List<AccessRequest> accessRequestList = getAllRequest();
List<AccessRequest> commentsList = getCommentsListProcessedManually(accessRequestList);
}
public List<AccessRequest> getCommentsListProcessedManually(List<AccessRequest> accessRequests) {
accessRequests.removeIf(ar -> !ar.getComment().equals("To be processed manually"));
if (accessRequests.size() != 0) {
SQLServerConnection sqlServerConnection = new SQLServerConnection(sqlServerUrl);
accessRequests.removeIf(ar -> !sqlServerConnection.emailExists(ar.getEmail()));
}
return accessRequests;
}
I'm supposed to get a second List only containing the objects that has their comments to To be processed manually, which I do. But the weird part is that the first List also takes the value of the second as if I wrote accessRequestList = commentsList but there is no such thing and I'm using local variable.
Ex :
I have 3 objects in my first List, but only one containing the required comment
Both list ends with containing the only objects containing the comment
I'm kind of lost here if anyone has an idea !
Your method getCommentsListProcessedManually modifies the list you're passing. I believe you're operating under the assumption that passing the list as a parameter somehow creates a copy of the list, whereas what is actually happening is that a reference to the list is passed by value.
There are several ways to solve this, but the easiest is to simply create a copy of your input list at the start of your method:
public List<AccessRequest> getCommentsListProcessedManually(List<AccessRequest> input) {
List<AccessRequest> accessRequests = new ArrayList<>(input);
accessRequests.removeIf(ar -> !ar.getComment().equals("To be processed manually"));
if (accessRequests.size() != 0) {
SQLServerConnection sqlServerConnection = new SQLServerConnection(sqlServerUrl);
accessRequests.removeIf(ar -> !sqlServerConnection.emailExists(ar.getEmail()));
}
return accessRequests;
}
You could also use the Stream API for this (using the filter operation), but that's quite a bit trickier in this situation.
You are passing a reference of the list to the method getCommentsListProcessedManually.
So accessRequestList and the one passed as a parameter are the same, hence any operation done to the list is done to the same list.
You can create a copy of the list before passing it as a parameter:
List<AccessRequest> newList = new ArrayList<AccessRequest>(accessRequestList);

Multiple string replacement in a single string generating all possible combinations

I'm trying to replace multiple words in a string with multiple other words. The string is
I have sample {url} with time to {live}
Here the possible values for {url} are
point1
point2
Possible values for {live} are
10
20
The four possible answers are
I have sample point1 with time to 10
I have sample point1 with time to 20
I have sample point2 with time to 10
I have sample point2 with time to 20
This can also increase to three.
I have {sample} {url} with time to {live}
What would be best data structures and good approach to solve this problem ?
You can do it something like:
public static void main(String[] args) {
String inputStr = "I have {sample} {url} with time to {live}";
Map<String, List<String>> replacers = new HashMap<String, List<String>>(){{
put("{sample}", Arrays.asList("point1", "point2"));
put("{live}", Arrays.asList("10", "20"));
put("{url}", Arrays.asList("url1", "url2", "url3"));
}};
for (String variant : stringGenerator(inputStr, replacers)) {
System.out.println(variant);
}
}
public static List<String> stringGenerator(String template, Map<String, List<String>> replacers) {
List<String> out = Arrays.asList(template);
for (Map.Entry<String, List<String>> replacerEntry : replacers.entrySet()) {
List<String> tempOut = new ArrayList<>(out.size()*replacerEntry.getValue().size());
for (String replacerValue : replacerEntry.getValue()) {
for (String variant : out) {
tempOut.add(variant.replace(replacerEntry.getKey(), replacerValue));
}
}
out = tempOut;
}
return out;
}
also you can try make similar solution with recursion
You can use a template string and print the combinations using System.out.format method like below:
public class Combinations {
public static void main(String[] args) {
String template = "I have sample %s with time to %d%n"; //<-- 2 arguments case
String[] points = {"point1", "point2"};
int[] lives = {10, 20};
for (String point : points) {
for (int live : lives) {
System.out.format(template, point, live);
}
}
}
}
The code solves the 2 argument case but it can be easily extended to the 3 cases substituting the sample word with another %s in the template and a triple loop.
I'm using the simplest array structures, it is up to you decide which structure is the more adapt for your code.
Unless you want the hardcoded solution with simple nested loops shown in Dariosicily's answer, you will need to store "replacee-replacements" pairings, for example the string {url} paired with a list of strings point1 and point2. A simple class can do that, like
class StringListPair{
public final String s;
public final List<String> l;
public StringListPair(String s,List<String> l){
this.s=s;
this.l=l;
}
}
and then a list of replacements can be initialized as
List<StringListPair> mappings=Arrays.asList(
new StringListPair("{url}",Arrays.asList("point1","point2")),
new StringListPair("{live}",Arrays.asList("10","20","30")));
(If someone wants to totally avoid having a helper class, these are all strings, so a List<List<String>> can do the job too, having "{url}","point1","point2" lists inside, just then we would have to fight with indexing the inner lists everywhere)
Then two common approaches pop into my mind: a recursive one, generating all possible combinations in a single run, and a direct-indexing one, numbering all combinations and generating any of them directly upon request. Recursion is simpler to come up with, and it has no significant drawbacks if all the combinations are needed anyway. The direct approach generates a single combination at a time, so if many combinations are not going to be used, it can spare a lot of memory and runtime (for example if someone would need a single randomly selected combination only, out of millions perhaps).
Recursion will be, well, recursive, having a completed combination generated in its deepest level, thus it needs the following:
the list of combinations (because it will be extended deep inside the call-chain)
the mappings
the candidate it is working on at the moment
something to track what label it is supposed to replace a the moment.
Then two things remain: recursion has to stop (when no further labels remain for replacement in the current candidate, it is added to the list), or it has to replace the current label with something, and proceed to the next level.
In code it can look like this:
static void recursive(List<String> result,List<StringListPair> mappings,String sofar,int partindex) {
if(partindex>=mappings.size()) {
result.add(sofar);
return;
}
StringListPair p=mappings.get(partindex);
for(String item:p.l)
recursive(result,mappings,sofar.replace(p.s,item),partindex+1);
}
level is tracked by a simple number, partindex, current candidate is called sofar (from "so far"). When the index is not referring to an existing element in mappings, the candidate is complete. Otherwise it loops through the "current" mapping, and calling itself with every replacement, well, recursively.
Wrapper function to creata and return an actual list:
static List<String> userecursive(List<StringListPair> mappings,String base){
List<String> result=new ArrayList<>();
recursive(result, mappings, base, 0);
return result;
}
The direct-indexing variant uses some maths. We have 2*3 combinations in the example, numbered from 0...5. If we say that these numbers are built from i=0..1 and j=0..2, the expression for that could be index=i+j*2. This can be reversed using modulo and division operations, like for the last index index=5: i=5%2=1, j=5//2=2. Where % is the modulo operator, and // is integer division. The method works higher "dimensions" too, just then it would apply modulo at every step, and update index itself with the division as the actual code does:
static String direct(List<StringListPair> mappings,String base,int index) {
for(StringListPair p:mappings) {
base=base.replace(p.s,p.l.get(index % p.l.size())); // modulo "trick" for current label
index /= p.l.size(); // integer division throws away processed label
}
return base;
}
Wrapper function (it has a loop to calculate "2*3" at the beginning, and collects combinations in a list):
static List<String> usedirect(List<StringListPair> mappings,String base){
int total=1;
for(StringListPair p:mappings)
total*=p.l.size();
List<String> result=new ArrayList<>();
for(int i=0;i<total;i++)
result.add(direct(mappings,base,i));
return result;
}
Complete code and demo is on Ideone

Iteration over a Set

I'm having issues with getting an iteration done (and modification) through the Set, which contains Objects. I've tried so many ways of iteration (4), but none of them seem to work and still throw me the Error java.util.ConcurrentModificationException.
[Code is written in Groovy]
private void replaceRock() {
ObjectNodeManager.OBJECTS.each {
System.out.println("Going...");
if(it.getPosition().withinDistance(player.getPosition(), 30)) {
System.out.println("Found...");
Position position = it.getPosition();
ObjectNode newRock = new ObjectNode(439, position, ObjectDirection.NORTH, ObjectType.DEFAULT);
ObjectNodeManager.unregister(it);
ObjectNodeManager.register(newRock);
it.remove();
}
}
}
I've tried synchronization to prevent access from other Threads, but this also didn't work. Please help me, I'm very desperate.
First find them (this will give you basically a list of refs) and then deal with them:
ObjectNodeManager.OBJECTS.findAll {
it.getPosition().withinDistance(player.getPosition(), 30))
}.each{
ObjectNode newRock = new ObjectNode(439, it.position, ObjectDirection.NORTH, ObjectType.DEFAULT)
ObjectNodeManager.unregister(it)
ObjectNodeManager.register(newRock)
it.remove()
}
On a random site note: i'd add a replace method in the ObjectNodeManager to combine unregister, register, remove. Also working with class methods and properties is not the best thing to do (but since it looks like a game...)
The problem is that you are modifying the list of objects while you are looping through the objects.
Try iterating through a copy of the objects instead.
ArrayList<YourType> copy = new ArrayList<YourType>(ObjectNodeManager.OBJECTS);
copy.each(...)

Creating a Queue that does not allow duplicate elements and should allow index based retrieval

I want to create a Queue which should not allow duplicate elements and I should be able to access elements of this queue based on index. Please let me know how should I implement this?
Well it is clear that Java doesn't have the exact data structure matching your specification and requirement. The closest that can match your requirement is probably a LinkedHashSet. It is basically a Set (matching your unique items requirement) whose elements are kept in insertion-order (like a Queue) and to get an element by index you can use set.toArray() to get an array or create a list out of the set (however it will cost cost some extra memory).
I am planning to use ConcurrentLinkedQueue for my problem. Here is the sample code
import java.util.concurrent.ConcurrentLinkedQueue;
public class FinalQueue {
private ConcurrentLinkedQueue<String> queue;
public FinalQueue()
{
queue = new ConcurrentLinkedQueue<String>();
}
public synchronized void enqueue(String ipAddress)
{
if(!queue.contains(ipAddress))
queue.add(ipAddress);
}
public String dequeue()
{
return queue.poll();
}
public String toString()
{
return "" + queue;
}
/**
* #param args
*/
public static void main(String[] args) {
FinalQueue queue = new FinalQueue();
queue.enqueue("1.2.3.4");
queue.enqueue("2.3.4.5");
queue.enqueue("1.1.1.1");
queue.enqueue("1.2.3.4");
System.out.println(queue.toString());
System.out.println("Dequeue..." + queue.dequeue());
System.out.println("Dequeue..." + queue.dequeue());
System.out.println(queue.toString());
}
}
You could always just use an ArrayList. It's good for accessing elements based on index and when adding elements you can always just check if the ArrayList contains the element to be added. My initial instinct was to use a Set for the disallowing of duplicates, but the elements are Sets are not indexed. If you can find a way to index the elements in Sets, then that would be my recommendation.
Don't call it a queue because by definition a queue only is a first in first out data structure.
Depending upon your input values, i believe you should use an array and a hash function. The hash determines which index an element is located using its value and vice versa i.e. when given an index it returns the value contained in it.
Since you are using a hash, the repetition is avoided when a collision occurs i.e. you can check if a value previously existed in an index and if it's the same value or not.
C++ stl has a good class for set though java i don't think have one. But the point is set does not offer index based retrieval.

Need help stepping through a java iterator

Say I have already created an iterator called "iter" and an arraylist called "database". I want to be able to look through the arraylist and see if any element in the arraylist is equal to a String called "test". If it is, then I would like to add the element to another list.
while(iter.hasNext()) {
if(database.next() == test) {
database.next().add(another_list);
}
}
What am I doing wrong? I'm completely new to iterators in java. Do I need to write my own iterator class? Any code examples would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
The problem with your code is that every time you call .next(), it advances the iterator forward to the next position. This means that this code
if(database.next() == test) {
database.next().add(another_list);
}
Won't work as intended, because the first call to database.next() will not give back the same value as the second call to database.next(). To fix this, you'll want to make a temporary variable to hold on to the new value, as seen here:
while(iter.hasNext()) {
/* type */ curr = iter.next();
if(curr == test) {
curr.add(another_list);
}
}
(Filling in the real type of what's being iterated over in place of /* type */)
In many cases, though, you don't need to use iterators explicitly. Most of the Collections types implement the Iterable interface, in which case you can just write
/* container */ c;
for(/* type */ curr: c) {
if(curr == test) {
curr.add(another_list);
}
}
Hope this helps!
if(database.contains("test"))
{
another_list.add("test");
}
you can use the built in method contains(...)
you should use equals(...) for data comparisions
look at the javadoc to see if there is already a method present for your purpose

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