Java collection/map apply method equivalent?

Question

Hi,

I would like to apply a function to a Java collection, in this particular case a map. Is there a nice way to do this? I have a map and would like to just run trim() on all the values in the map and have the map reflect the updates.

Answer 1

Whether you can modify your collection in-place or not depends on the class of the objects in the collection.

If those objects are immutable (which Strings are) then you can't just take the items from the collection and modify them - instead you'll need to iterate over the collection, call the relevant function, and then put the resulting value back.

Answer 2

public void trimValues(Map<?, String> map) {
  for (Map.Entry<?, String> e : map.entrySet()) {
    String val = e.getValue();
    if (val != null)
      e.setValue(val.trim());
  }
}

Or, more generally:

interface Function<T> {
  T operate(T val);
}

public static <T> void replaceValues(Map<?, T> map, Function<T> f)
{
  for (Map.Entry<?, T> e : map.entrySet())
    e.setValue(f.operate(e.getValue()));
}

Util.replaceValues(myMap, new Function<String>() {
  public String operate(String val)
  {
    return (val == null) ? null : val.trim();
  }
});

Answer 3

You'll have to iterate over all the entries and trim each String value. Since String is immutable you'll have to re-put it in the map. A better approach might be to trim the values as they're placed in the map.

Answer 4

Might be overkill for something like this, but there are a number of really good utilities for these types of problems in the Apache Commons Collections library.

Map<String, String> map = new HashMap<String, String>(); 
map.put("key1", "a  ");
map.put("key2", " b ");
map.put("key3", "  c");

TransformedMap.decorateTransform(map, 
  TransformerUtils.nopTransformer(), 
  TransformerUtils.invokerTransformer("trim"));

I highly recommend the Jakarta Commons Cookbook from O'Reilly.

Answer 5

You could also take a look at Google Collections

Answer 6

I don't know a way to do that with the JDK libraries other than your accepted response, however Google Collections lets you do the following thing, with the classes com.google.collect.Maps and com.google.common.base.Function:

Map<?,String> trimmedMap = Maps.transformValues(untrimmedMap, new Function<String, String>() {
  public String apply(String from) {
    if (from != null)
      return from.trim();
    return null;
  }
}

The biggest difference of that method with the proposed one is that it provides a view to your original map, which means that, while it is always in sync with your original map, the apply method could be invoked many times if you are manipulating said map heavily.

A similar Collections2.transform(Collection<F>,Function<F,T>) method exists for collections.

Answer 7

I have come up with a "Mapper" class

public static abstract class Mapper<FromClass, ToClass> {

    private Collection<FromClass> source;

    // Mapping methods
    public abstract ToClass map(FromClass source);

    // Constructors
    public Mapper(Collection<FromClass> source) {
        this.source = source;
    }   
    public Mapper(FromClass ... source) {
        this.source = Arrays.asList(source);
    }   

    // Apply map on every item
    public Collection<ToClass> apply() {
        ArrayList<ToClass> result = new ArrayList<ToClass>();
        for (FromClass item : this.source) {
            result.add(this.map(item));
        }
        return result;
    }
}

That I use like that :

Collection<Loader> loaders = new Mapper<File, Loader>(files) {
    @Override public Loader map(File source) {
        return new Loader(source);
    }           
}.apply();