When to use HashMap over LinkedList or ArrayList and vice-versa

Question

What is the reason why we cannot always use a HashMap, even though it is much more efficient than ArrayList or LinkedList in add,remove operations, also irrespective of the number of the elements.

I googled it and found some reasons, but there was always a workaround for using HashMap, with advantages still alive.

Answer 1

Lists represent a sequential ordering of elements. Maps are used to represent a collection of key / value pairs.

While you could use a map as a list, there are some definite downsides of doing so.

Maintaining order: - A list by definition is ordered. You add items and then you are able to iterate back through the list in the order that you inserted the items. When you add items to a HashMap, you are not guaranteed to retrieve the items in the same order you put them in. There are subclasses of HashMap like LinkedHashMap that will maintain the order, but in general order is not guaranteed with a Map.

Key/Value semantics: - The purpose of a map is to store items based on a key that can be used to retrieve the item at a later point. Similar functionality can only be achieved with a list in the limited case where the key happens to be the position in the list.

Code readability Consider the following examples.

    // Adding to a List
    list.add(myObject);         // adds to the end of the list
    map.put(myKey, myObject);   // sure, you can do this, but what is myKey?
    map.put("1", myObject);     // you could use the position as a key but why?

    // Iterating through the items
    for (Object o : myList)           // nice and easy
    for (Object o : myMap.values())   // more code and the order is not guaranteed

Collection functionality Some great utility functions are available for lists via the Collections class. For example ...

    // Randomize the list
    Collections.shuffle(myList);

    // Sort the list
    Collections.sort(myList, myComparator);  

Hope this helps,