Is there a good way to have a Map<String, ?> get and put ignore case?

Question

Is there a good way to have a Map get and put ignore case?

Answer 1

You need a wrapper class for your String key with a case-insensitive equals() and hashCode() implementation. Use that instead of the String for the Map's key.

See an example implementation at http://www.java.happycodings.com/Java_Util_Package/code3.html I found it in 2 minutes of googling. Looks sensible to me, though I've never used it.

Answer 2

You could use org.apache.commons.collections.map.CaseInsensitiveMap from Apache's Commons Collections.

Answer 3

Would it be possible to implement your own Map overriding put/get methods ?

public class CaseInsensitiveMap extends HashMap<String, String> {
    ...
    put(String key, String value) {
       super.put(key.toLowerCase(), value);
    }

    get(String key) {
       super.get(key.toLowercase());
    }
}

This approach does not force you to change your "key" type but your Map implementation.

Answer 4

The three obvious solutions that spring to mind:

• Normalise the case before using a String as a key (not Turkish locale works differently from the rest of the world).

• Use a special object type designed to be used as key. This is a common idiom for dealing with composite keys.

• Use a TreeMap with a Comparator that is case insensitive (possibly a PRIMARY or SECONDARY strength java.text.Collator). Unfortunately the Java library doesn't have a Comparator equivalent for hashCode/equals.

Answer 5

You could use my Apache licensed CaseInsensitiveMap discussed here. Unlike the Apache Commons version, it preserves the case of keys. It implements the map contract more strictly than TreeMap (plus has better concurrent semantics) (see the blog comments for details).

Answer 6

Trove4j can use custom hashing for a HashMap. This may however have performance implications given that hashcodes cannot be cached (although Trove4j may have found a way around this?). Wrapper objects (as described by John M) do not have this caching deficiency. Also see my other answer regarding TreeMap.

Answer 7

TreeMap extends Map and supports custom comparators.

String provides a default case insensitive comparator.

So:

final Map<String, ...> map = new TreeMap<String, ...>(String.CASE_INSENSITIVE_ORDER);