[java] A Java collection of value pairs? (tuples?)

I like how Java has a Map where you can define the types of each entry in the map, for example <String, Integer>.

What I'm looking for is a type of collection where each element in the collection is a pair of values. Each value in the pair can have its own type (like the String and Integer example above), which is defined at declaration time.

The collection will maintain its given order and will not treat one of the values as a unique key (as in a map).

Essentially I want to be able to define an ARRAY of type <String,Integer> or any other 2 types.

I realize that I can make a class with nothing but the 2 variables in it, but that seems overly verbose.

I also realize that I could use a 2D array, but because of the different types I need to use, I'd have to make them arrays of OBJECT, and then I'd have to cast all the time.

I only need to store pairs in the collection, so I only need two values per entry. Does something like this exist without going the class route? Thanks!

Map.Entry

These built-in classes are an option, too. Both implement the Map.Entry interface.

• AbstractMap.SimpleEntry
• AbstractMap.SimpleImmutableEntry

You could write a generic Pair<A, B> class and use this in an array or list. Yes, you have to write a class, but you can reuse the same class for all types, so you only have to do it once.

Apache common lang3 has Pair class and few other libraries mentioned in this thread What is the equivalent of the C++ Pair<L,R> in Java?

Example matching the requirement from your original question:

List<Pair<String, Integer>> myPairs = new ArrayList<Pair<String, Integer>>();
myPairs.add(Pair.of("val1", 11));
myPairs.add(Pair.of("val2", 17));

//...

for(Pair<String, Integer> pair : myPairs) {
  //following two lines are equivalent... whichever is easier for you...
  System.out.println(pair.getLeft() + ": " + pair.getRight());
  System.out.println(pair.getKey() + ": " + pair.getValue());
}

Apache Crunch also has a Pair class: http://crunch.apache.org/apidocs/0.5.0/org/apache/crunch/Pair.html

I mean, even though there is no Pair class in Java there is something pretty simmilar: Map.Entry

Map.Entry Documentation

This is (simplifying quite a bit) what HashMap , or actually any Map stores.

You can create an instance of Map store your values in it and get the entry set. You will end up with a Set<Map.Entry<K,V>> which effectively is what you want.

So:

public static void main(String []args)
{    
    HashMap<String, Integer> values = new HashMap<String,Integer>();
    values.put("A", 235);//your custom data, the types may be different
    //more data insertions....
    Set<Map.Entry<String,Integer>> list = values.entrySet();//your list 
    //do as you may with it
}

This is based on JavaHelp4u 's code.

Less verbose and shows how to do in one line and how to loop over things.

//======>  Imports
import java.util.AbstractMap.SimpleEntry;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Map.Entry;

//======>  Single Entry
SimpleEntry<String, String> myEntry = new SimpleEntry<String, String>("ID", "Text");
System.out.println("key: " + myEntry.getKey() + "    value:" + myEntry.getValue());
System.out.println();

//======>  List of Entries
List<Entry<String,String>> pairList = new ArrayList<>();

//-- Specify manually
Entry<String,String> firstButton = new SimpleEntry<String, String>("Red ", "Way out");
pairList.add(firstButton);

//-- one liner:
pairList.add(new SimpleEntry<String,String>("Gray", "Alternate route"));  //Ananomous add.

//-- Iterate over Entry array:
for (Entry<String, String> entr : pairList) {
    System.out.println("Button: " + entr.getKey() + "    Label: " + entr.getValue());
}

Spring has a Pair<S,T> type in the Data Utils package org.springframework.data.util

Pair<String,Integer> pair = Pair.of("Test", 123);
System.out.println(pair.getFirst());
System.out.println(pair.getSecond());

The preferred solution as you've described it is a List of Pairs (i.e. List).

To accomplish this you would create a Pair class for use in your collection. This is a useful utility class to add to your code base.

The closest class in the Sun JDK providing functionality similar to a typical Pair class is AbstractMap.SimpleEntry. You could use this class rather than creating your own Pair class, though you would have to live with some awkward restrictions and I think most people would frown on this as not really the intended role of SimpleEntry. For example SimpleEntry has no "setKey()" method and no default constructor, so you may find it too limiting.

Bear in mind that Collections are designed to contain elements of a single type. Related utility interfaces such as Map are not actually Collections (i.e. Map does not implement the Collection interface). A Pair would not implement the Collection interface either but is obviously a useful class in building larger data structures.

First Thing on my mind when talking about key/value pairs is the Properties Class where you can save and load items to a stream/file.

To anyone developing for Android, you can use android.util.Pair. :)

just create a class like

class tuples 
{ 
int x;
int y;
} 

then create List of this objects of tuples

List<tuples> list = new ArrayList<tuples>();

so you can also implement other new data structures in the same way.

AbstractMap.SimpleEntry

Easy you are looking for this:

java.util.List<java.util.Map.Entry<String,Integer>> pairList= new java.util.ArrayList<>();

How can you fill it?

java.util.Map.Entry<String,Integer> pair1=new java.util.AbstractMap.SimpleEntry<>("Not Unique key1",1);
java.util.Map.Entry<String,Integer> pair2=new java.util.AbstractMap.SimpleEntry<>("Not Unique key2",2);
pairList.add(pair1);
pairList.add(pair2);

This simplifies to:

Entry<String,Integer> pair1=new SimpleEntry<>("Not Unique key1",1);
Entry<String,Integer> pair2=new SimpleEntry<>("Not Unique key2",2);
pairList.add(pair1);
pairList.add(pair2);

And, with the help of a createEntry method, can further reduce the verbosity to:

pairList.add(createEntry("Not Unique key1", 1));
pairList.add(createEntry("Not Unique key2", 2));

Since ArrayList isn't final, it can be subclassed to expose an of method (and the aforementioned createEntry method), resulting in the syntactically terse:

TupleList<java.util.Map.Entry<String,Integer>> pair = new TupleList<>();
pair.of("Not Unique key1", 1);
pair.of("Not Unique key2", 2);

What about com.sun.tools.javac.util.Pair?

Expanding on the other answers a generic immutable Pair should have a static method to avoid cluttering your code with the call to the constructor:

class Pair<L,R> {
      final L left;
      final R right;

      public Pair(L left, R right) {
        this.left = left;
        this.right = right;
      }

      static <L,R> Pair<L,R> of(L left, R right){
          return new Pair<L,R>(left, right);
      }
}

if you name the static method "of" or "pairOf" the code becomes fluent as you can write either:

    list.add(Pair.of(x,y)); // my preference
    list.add(pairOf(x,y)); // use with import static x.y.Pair.pairOf

its a real shame that the core java libraries are so sparse on such things that you have to use commons-lang or other 3rd parties to do such basic stuff. yet another reason to upgrade to scala...

Java 9+

In Java 9, you can simply write: Map.entry(key, value) to create an immutable pair.

Note: this method does not allow keys or values to be null. If you want to allow null values, for example, you'd want to change this to: Map.entry(key, Optional.ofNullable(value)).

Java 8+

In Java 8, you can use the more general-purpose javafx.util.Pair to create an immutable, serializable pair. This class does allow null keys and null values. (In Java 9, this class is included in the javafx.base module). EDIT: As of Java 11, JavaFX has been decoupled from the JDK, so you'd need the additional maven artifact org.openjfx:javafx-base.

Java 6+

In Java 6 and up, you can use the more verbose AbstractMap.SimpleImmutableEntry for an immutable pair, or AbstractMap.SimpleEntry for a pair whose value can be changed. These classes also allow null keys and null values, and are serializable.

Android

If you're writing for Android, just use Pair.create(key, value) to create an immutable pair.

Apache Commons

Apache Commons Lang provides the helpful Pair.of(key, value) to create an immutable, comparable, serializable pair.

Eclipse Collections

If you're using pairs that contain primitives, Eclipse Collections provides some very efficient primitive pair classes that will avoid all the inefficient auto-boxing and auto-unboxing.

For instance, you could use PrimitiveTuples.pair(int, int) to create an IntIntPair, or PrimitiveTuples.pair(float, long) to create a FloatLongPair.

Project Lombok

Using Project Lombok, you can create an immutable pair class simply by writing:

@Value
public class Pair<K, V> {
    K key;
    V value;
}

Lombok will fill in the constructor, getters, equals(), hashCode(), and toString() methods for you automatically in the generated bytecode. If you want a static factory method instead of a constructor, e.g., a Pair.of(k, v), simply change the annotation to: @Value(staticConstructor = "of").

Otherwise

If none of the above solutions float your boat, you can simply copy and paste the following code (which, unlike the class listed in the accepted answer, guards against NullPointerExceptions):

import java.util.Objects;

public class Pair<K, V> {

    public final K key;
    public final V value;

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

    public boolean equals(Object o) {
        return o instanceof Pair && Objects.equals(key, ((Pair<?,?>)o).key) && Objects.equals(value, ((Pair<?,?>)o).value);
    }

    public int hashCode() {
        return 31 * Objects.hashCode(key) + Objects.hashCode(value);
    }

    public String toString() {
        return key + "=" + value;
    }
}

In project Reactor (io.projectreactor:reactor-core) there is advanced support for n-Tuples:

Tuple2<String, Integer> t = Tuples.of("string", 1)

There you can get t.getT1(), t.getT2(), ... Especially with Stream or Flux you can even map the tuple elements:

Stream<Tuple2<String, Integer>> s;
s.map(t -> t.mapT2(i -> i + 2));

I was going to ask if you would not want to just use a List<Pair<T, U>>? but then, of course, the JDK doesn't have a Pair<> class. But a quick Google found one on both Wikipedia, and forums.sun.com. Cheers

What about "Apache Commons Lang 3" Pair class and the relative subclasses ?

    import org.apache.commons.lang3.tuple.ImmutablePair;
    import org.apache.commons.lang3.tuple.Pair;
    ...
    @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
    Pair<String, Integer>[] arr = new ImmutablePair[]{
            ImmutablePair.of("A", 1),
            ImmutablePair.of("B", 2)};

    // both access the 'left' part
    String key = arr[0].getKey();
    String left = arr[0].getLeft();

    // both access the 'right' part
    Integer value = arr[0].getValue();
    Integer right = arr[0].getRight();

ImmutablePair is a specific subclass that does not allow the values in the pair to be modified, but there are others implementations with different semantic. These are the Maven coordinates, if you need them.

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.commons</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-lang3</artifactId>
            <version>3.4</version>
        </dependency>