Java: how to convert a List<?> to a Map<String,?>

Question

I would like to find a way to take the object specific routine below and abstract it into a method that you can pass a class, list, and fieldname to get back a Map. If I could get a general pointer on the pattern used or , etc that could get me started in the right direction.

  Map<String,Role> mapped_roles = new HashMap<String,Role>();
    List<Role> p_roles = (List<Role>) c.list();
    for (Role el :  p_roles) {
        mapped_roles.put(el.getName(), el);
    }

to this? (Pseudo code)

  Map<String,?> MapMe(Class clz, Collection list, String methodName)
  Map<String,?> map = new HashMap<String,?>();
    for (clz el :  list) {
        map.put(el.methodName(), el);
    }

is it possible?

Answer 1

Using reflection and generics:

public static <T> Map<String, T> MapMe(Class<T> clz, Collection<T> list, String methodName)
throws Exception{
  Map<String, T> map = new HashMap<String, T>();
  Method method = clz.getMethod(methodName);
  for (T el : list){
    map.put((String)method.invoke(el), el);
  }
  return map;
}

In your documentation, make sure you mention that the return type of the method must be a String. Otherwise, it will throw a ClassCastException when it tries to cast the return value.

Answer 2

Here's what I would do. I am not entirely sure if I am handling generics right, but oh well:

public <T> Map<String, T> mapMe(Collection<T> list) {
   Map<String, T> map = new HashMap<String, T>();
   for (T el : list) {
       map.put(el.toString(), el);
   }   
   return map;
}

Just pass a Collection to it, and have your classes implement toString() to return the name. Polymorphism will take care of it.

Answer 3

Avoid reflection like the plague.

Unfortunately, Java's syntax for this is verbose. (A recent JDK7 proposal would make it much more consise.)

interface ToString<T> {
    String toString(T obj);
}

public static <T> Map<String,T> stringIndexOf(
    Iterable<T> things,
    ToString<T> toString
) {
    Map<String,T> map = new HashMap<String,T>();
    for (T thing : things) {
        map.put(toString.toString(thing), thing);
    }
    return map;
}

Currently call as:

Map<String,Thing> map = stringIndexOf(
    things,
    new ToString<Thing>() { public String toString(Thing thing) {
        return thing.getSomething();
    }
);

In JDK7, it may be something like:

Map<String,Thing> map = stringIndexOf(
    things,
    { thing -> thing.getSomething(); }
);

(Might need a yield in there.)

Answer 4

using Google Collections:

Map<String,Role> mappedRoles = Maps.uniqueIndex(yourList, Functions.toStringFunction());

Or, if you want to supply your own method that makes a String out of the object:

Map<String,Role> mappedRoles = Maps.uniqueIndex(yourList, new Function<Role,String>() {
  public String apply(Role from) {
    return from.getName(); // or something else
  }});

Answer 5

If you're sure that each object in the List will have a unique index, use Guava with Jorn's suggestion of Maps.uniqueIndex.

If, on the other hand, more than one object may have the same value for the index field (which, while not true for your specific example perhaps, is true in many use cases for this sort of thing), the more general way do this indexing is to use Multimaps.index(Iterable<V> values, Function<? super V,K> keyFunction) to create an ImmutableListMultimap<K,V> that maps each key to one or more matching values.

Here's an example that uses a custom Function that creates an index on a specific property of an object:

List<Foo> foos = ...
ImmutableListMultimap<String, Foo> index = Multimaps.index(foos,
    new Function<Foo, String>() {
      public String apply(Foo input) {
        return input.getBar();
      }
    });

// iterate over all Foos that have "baz" as their Bar property
for (Foo foo : index.get("baz")) { ... }