Convert JSON to Map or Map to Json in Java

One of the common uses cases while working with json is to convert it to a java object or convert java object to json. There is an open source library available in java which helps in processing json objects.

Add the Jackson dependency in pom.xml file

<repositories>
	<repository>
		<id>codehaus</id>
		<url>http://repository.codehaus.org/org/codehaus</url>
	</repository>
  </repositories>

  <dependencies>
	<dependency>
		<groupId>org.codehaus.jackson</groupId>
		<artifactId>jackson-mapper-asl</artifactId>
		<version>1.9.12</version>
	</dependency>
  </dependencies>

The Java class :

public static void main(String args[]) {
        ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
        Map m = new HashMap();
        Map personMap = new HashMap<>();
        Map personDetail = new HashMap();
        personDetail.put("firstname", "Bob");
        personDetail.put("lastname", "jackson");
        personDetail.put("age", "12");
        personDetail.put("city", "Berlin");

        personMap.put("person", personDetail);
        //convert Map to json string
        try {
            System.out.println(mapper.writeValueAsString(personMap));
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

        // convert json to Map
        String json = "{\"person\":{\"age\":\"12\",\"lastname\":\"jackson\""
                + ",\"firstname\":\"Bob\",\"city\":\"Berlin\"}}"
        try {
            Map map = mapper.readValue(json, Map.class);
            System.out.println("Map is " + map);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
 }

Output is

Output: {“person”:{“age”:”12″,”lastname”:”jackson”,”firstname”:”Bob”,”city”:”Berlin”}}

Map is {person={age=12, lastname=jackson, firstname=Bob, city=Berlin}}

ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();

Creating an object of ObjectMapper is a expensive operation and as best practice it should be created as a singleton object in a class.

Create custom hashmap in Java

One of the common interview question, is to build own CustomHashMap. Following code sample demonstrate generic map with put(), get() and remove() operations.

/**
 * The CustomHashMap uses an array of KeyValuePair.
 * KeyValuePair class  where K is the key and V value and  next is the element appended to it. The KeyValuePair acts 
 * as a list
 * 
 *  MapList is used to store elements. the getHash() method is used to find the index of the array. 
 * 
 * @param <K>
 * @param <V>
 */
public class CustomHashMap<K, V> {

	KeyValuePair<K, V> mapList[] = new KeyValuePair[100];

	public V get(K key) {
		int index = getHash(key);
		KeyValuePair<K,V> list = mapList[index];
		return getMatchValue(list, key);
	}

	public void put(K key, V value) {
		int index = getHash(key);
		storeValue(index, key, value);
	}
	
	public void remove(K key) {
		int index = getHash(key);
		KeyValuePair<K,V> list = mapList[index];
		if (list == null)
			return;
		// if only one element is present in the list ,set the index to null
		if(list.getKey().equals(key)){
			if (list.next == null){
				mapList[index] = null;
				return;
			}
		}
		KeyValuePair<K,V> prev = null;
		do{
			if(list.key.equals(key)){
				if (prev == null){
					list = list.getNext();
				}else{
					prev.next = list.getNext();
				}
				break;
			}
			list = list.next;
		}while(list != null);
		
		mapList[index] = list;
	}

	/*
	 * find the match value and return , if not found either throw exception or return null.
	 */
	private V getMatchValue(KeyValuePair<K, V> list, K key) {
		while (list != null) {
			if (list.getKey().equals(key))
				return list.getValue();
			list = list.next;
		}
		return null;
	}

	private void storeValue(int index, K key, V value) {
		KeyValuePair<K, V> list = mapList[index];
		
		// if list is empty , enter as first element
		if (list == null) {
			mapList[index] = new KeyValuePair<K, V>(key, value);
		} else {
			boolean done = false;
			// traverse through list , if a key is found ,replace the value or add it at the end of the list
			while(list.next != null) {
				if (list.getKey().equals(key)) {
					list.setValue(value);
					done = true;
					break;
				} 
				list = list.next;
			}
			// add at the end of the list
			if (!done)
				list.next = new KeyValuePair<K, V>(key, value);
		}

	}
	
	private int getHash(K key) {
		int hash = key.hashCode();
		return hash % 100;
	}
	
	public static void main(String args[]) {
		CustomHashMap<Integer, Integer> map = new CustomHashMap<Integer, Integer>();
		map.put(1, 1);
		map.put(2, 2);
		map.put(201,201);
		System.out.println("get value is " + map.get(1));
		System.out.println("get value is " + map.get(201));
		System.out.println("get value is " + map.get(2));
		map.remove(1);
		System.out.println("After deletion " + map.get(1));
		System.out.println("get value is " + map.get(201));
	}

}

class KeyValuePair<K, V> {
	K key;
	V value;
	KeyValuePair<K, V> next = null;

	public KeyValuePair<K, V> getNext() {
		return next;
	}

	public void setNext(KeyValuePair<K, V> next) {
		this.next = next;
	}

	public KeyValuePair(K key, V value) {
		super();
		this.key = key;
		this.value = value;
	}

	public K getKey() {
		return key;
	}

	public void setKey(K key) {
		this.key = key;
	}

	public V getValue() {
		return value;
	}

	public void setValue(V value) {
		this.value = value;
	}

}

Q)What is difference between HashMap and HashTable?

Both collections implements Map. Both collections store value as key-value pairs. The key differences between the two are

1. Access to the Hashtable is synchronized on the table while access to the HashMap isn’t. You can add it, but it isn’t there by default.

2. Another difference is that iterator in the HashMap is fail-safe while the enumerator for the Hashtable isn’t. If you change the map while iterating, you’ll know. • Fail-safe – “if the Hashtable is structurally modified at any time after the iterator is created, in any way except through the iterator’s own remove method, the iterator will throw a ConcurrentModificationException”

3. HashMap permits null values and only one null key, while Hashtable doesn’t allow key or value as null.