How to sort a HashMap in Java

Question

How are we able to sort a HashMap<key, ArrayList>?

I want to sort on the basis of a value in the ArrayList.

Answer 1

Do you have to use a HashMap? If you only need the Map Interface use a TreeMap

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If you want to sort by comparing values in the HashMap. You have to write code to do this, if you want to do it once you can sort the values of your HashMap:

Map<String, Person> people = new HashMap<>();
Person jim = new Person("Jim", 25);
Person scott = new Person("Scott", 28);
Person anna = new Person("Anna", 23);

people.put(jim.getName(), jim);
people.put(scott.getName(), scott);
people.put(anna.getName(), anna);

// not yet sorted
List<Person> peopleByAge = new ArrayList<>(people.values());

Collections.sort(peopleByAge, Comparator.comparing(Person::getAge));

for (Person p : peopleByAge) {
    System.out.println(p.getName() + "\t" + p.getAge());
}

If you want to access this sorted list often, then you could insert your elements into a HashMap<TreeSet<Person>>, though the semantics of sets and lists are a bit different.