A Programmer[ap]s Guide to Java Certification

The following information was included in this chapter:

• an overview of the collections framework in the java.util package: core interfaces and their implementations .

• discussion of the functionality specified by the Collection interface and its role in the collections framework.

• discussion of sets, how their functionality is defined by the Set interface and implemented by HashSet and LinkedHashSet .

• discussion of lists, how their functionality is defined by the List interface and implemented by ArrayList , Vector , and LinkedList .

• discussion of maps, how their functionality is defined by the Map interface and implemented by HashMap , LinkedHashMap , and Hashtable .

• the role of the Comparator and Comparable interfaces for ordering of elements.

• discussion of sorted sets and sorted maps, how their functionality is defined by the SortedSet and SortedMap interfaces and implemented by TreeSet and TreeMap .

• customizing collections for synchronization and data immutability .

• an overview of utility methods found in the Collections and Arrays class.