[java] Efficient way to Handle ResultSet in Java

I'm using a ResultSet in Java, and am not sure how to properly close it. I'm considering using the ResultSet to construct a HashMap and then closing the ResultSet after that. Is this HashMap technique efficient, or are there more efficient ways of handling this situation? I need both keys and values, so using a HashMap seemed like a logical choice.

If using a HashMap is the most efficient method, how do I construct and use the HashMap in my code?

Here's what I've tried:

public HashMap resultSetToHashMap(ResultSet rs) throws SQLException {

  ResultSetMetaData md = rs.getMetaData();
  int columns = md.getColumnCount();
  HashMap row = new HashMap();
  while (rs.next()) {
     for (int i = 1; i <= columns; i++) {
       row.put(md.getColumnName(i), rs.getObject(i));
     }
  }
  return row;
}

public static List<HashMap<Object, Object>> GetListOfDataFromResultSet(ResultSet rs) throws SQLException {
        ResultSetMetaData metaData = rs.getMetaData();
        int count = metaData.getColumnCount();
        String[] columnName = new String[count];
        List<HashMap<Object,Object>> lst=new ArrayList<>();
        while(rs.next()) {
            HashMap<Object,Object> map=new HashMap<>();
            for (int i = 1; i <= count; i++){
                   columnName[i-1] = metaData.getColumnLabel(i);
                   map.put(columnName[i-1], rs.getObject(i));
            }
            lst.add(map);

        }
        return lst;
    }

I just cleaned up RHT's answer to eliminate some warnings and thought I would share. Eclipse did most of the work:

public List<HashMap<String,Object>> convertResultSetToList(ResultSet rs) throws SQLException {
    ResultSetMetaData md = rs.getMetaData();
    int columns = md.getColumnCount();
    List<HashMap<String,Object>> list = new ArrayList<HashMap<String,Object>>();

    while (rs.next()) {
        HashMap<String,Object> row = new HashMap<String, Object>(columns);
        for(int i=1; i<=columns; ++i) {
            row.put(md.getColumnName(i),rs.getObject(i));
        }
        list.add(row);
    }

    return list;
}

A couple of things to enhance the other answers. First, you should never return a HashMap, which is a specific implementation. Return instead a plain old java.util.Map. But that's actually not right for this example, anyway. Your code only returns the last row of the ResultSet as a (Hash)Map. You instead want to return a List<Map<String,Object>>. Think about how you should modify your code to do that. (Or you could take Dave Newton's suggestion).

Here is the code little modified that i got it from google -

 List data_table = new ArrayList<>();
    Class.forName("oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver");
            con = DriverManager.getConnection(conn_url, user_id, password);
            Statement stmt = con.createStatement();
            System.out.println("query_string: "+query_string);
            ResultSet rs = stmt.executeQuery(query_string);
            ResultSetMetaData rsmd = rs.getMetaData();


            int row_count = 0;
            while (rs.next()) {
                HashMap<String, String> data_map = new HashMap<>();
                if (row_count == 240001) {
                    break;
                }
                for (int i = 1; i <= rsmd.getColumnCount(); i++) {
                    data_map.put(rsmd.getColumnName(i), rs.getString(i));
                }
                data_table.add(data_map);
                row_count = row_count + 1;
            }
            rs.close();
            stmt.close();
            con.close();

i improved the solutions of RHTs/Brad Ms and of Lestos answer.

i extended both solutions in leaving the state there, where it was found. So i save the current ResultSet position and restore it after i created the maps.

The rs is the ResultSet, its a field variable and so in my solutions-snippets not visible.

I replaced the specific Map in Brad Ms solution to the gerneric Map.

    public List<Map<String, Object>> resultAsListMap() throws SQLException
    {
        var md = rs.getMetaData();
        var columns = md.getColumnCount();
        var list = new ArrayList<Map<String, Object>>();

        var currRowIndex = rs.getRow();
        rs.beforeFirst();

        while (rs.next())
        {
            HashMap<String, Object> row = new HashMap<String, Object>(columns);
            for (int i = 1; i <= columns; ++i)
            {
                row.put(md.getColumnName(i), rs.getObject(i));
            }

            list.add(row);
        }

        rs.absolute(currRowIndex);

        return list;
    }

In Lestos solution, i optimized the code. In his code he have to lookup the Maps each iteration of that for-loop. I reduced that to only one array-acces each for-loop iteration. So the program must not seach each iteration step for that string-key.

    public Map<String, List<Object>> resultAsMapList() throws SQLException
    {
        var md = rs.getMetaData();
        var columns = md.getColumnCount();
        var tmp = new ArrayList[columns];
        var map = new HashMap<String, List<Object>>(columns);

        var currRowIndex = rs.getRow();
        rs.beforeFirst();

        for (int i = 1; i <= columns; ++i)
        {
            tmp[i - 1] = new ArrayList<>();
            map.put(md.getColumnName(i), tmp[i - 1]);
        }

        while (rs.next())
        {
            for (int i = 1; i <= columns; ++i)
            {
                tmp[i - 1].add(rs.getObject(i));
            }
        }

        rs.absolute(currRowIndex);

        return map;
    }

this is my alternative solution, instead of a List of Map, i'm using a Map of List. Tested on tables of 5000 elements, on a remote db, times are around 350ms for eiter method.

private Map<String, List<Object>> resultSetToArrayList(ResultSet rs) throws SQLException {
    ResultSetMetaData md = rs.getMetaData();
    int columns = md.getColumnCount();
    Map<String, List<Object>> map = new HashMap<>(columns);
    for (int i = 1; i <= columns; ++i) {
        map.put(md.getColumnName(i), new ArrayList<>());
    }
    while (rs.next()) {
        for (int i = 1; i <= columns; ++i) {
            map.get(md.getColumnName(i)).add(rs.getObject(i));
        }
    }

    return map;
}

RHT pretty much has it. Or you could use a RowSetDynaClass and let someone else do all the work :)