HashMap with Class as value

[Brendan Crisler]

To anyone who will help me from killing myself over this:

I am having an issue using HashMap with a private class as the value for it. The private class is similar to a struct in C++ (map<string, struct> . It's made up of two parameters. Ex:

/*********************/

private class zType {
xType x;
long y;
}

private enum xType {
a,
b,
c,
}

HashMap map = new HashMap();
// wanted key = string and value = zType

/*************/

Now, when I create a variable of zType and try to give values to each parameter, and then try to add it to the HashMap, i get an error that the zType variable had not been initialized. Can someone help? I know it's not exactly a HashMap problem, but I would also like to know if this is even possible to do with a HashMap.

Thanks,
B

[Jaikiran Pai]

Without seeing the actual code, cant say much. But i can guess that you might be having code like:

[B]zType myVar;[/B]
myVar.y = 3;
.....
 
HashMap myMap = new HashMap();
myMap.put("someKey",myVar);

If so then you will have to initialize the myVar first, like:

[B]zType myVar = new zType();[/B]
myVar.y = 3;
.....
 
HashMap myMap = new HashMap();
myMap.put("someKey",myVar);

[Stan James]

Can you show us a little more code and just where the error occurs? I'd expect to see you build a ZType object and put it in the map ...

ZType myZ = ...
map.put( "first", myZ );

[Brendan Crisler]

I appreciate the help thus far. Here is the code (somewhat):

private enum xType
{
a,
b,
c,
d,
}

private static class zType
{
static xType x;
static long y;
}


private static HashMaptestMap = new HashMap();

public static void main(String[] args) {
zType z;

z.y = 23;
z.x = xType.a;

testMap.put("hello", z);
}

// I get the errors on the 'z' variables. For each use (z.y, z.x, and z within the add method, the error shows that it has not been initialized. But, if i initialize it to null in the beginning, I get a value of null when I print it out. See below:


public static void main(String[] args) {
zType z = null;
String var = "hello";

z.y = 23;
z.x = xType.a;

testMap.put(var, z);

System.out.println(testMap);
}

// Output - {hello = null}


This is where I get confused...

Thanks again,

[Ilja Preuss]

Carefully read Jaikirans post again. It's exactly what you need.

[Brendan Crisler]

Yeah, right before I got the reply, I figured it out. I can't believe that I didn't see it.

Now, this brings me to another issue....

I can't seem to cast from the iteration to my previous type. See below:

private enum xType
{
a,
b,
c,
d,
}

private static class zType
{
static xType x;
static long y;
}

private static Map testMap = new HashMap();

public static void main(String[] args) {
zType z = new zType();
zType w = new zType();
xType v;
long l;
String var = "hello";

z.y = 23;
z.x = xType.a;

testMap.put(var, trackDataType);

Set entries = testMap.entrySet();
Iterator it = entries.iterator();

if (it.hasNext()) {
Map.Entry entry = (Map.Entry) it.next();
w = (zType)entry; // It say illegal cast
v = z.x;
l = z.y;
}
}

Is there a way to make this work? It also says that I cannot cast from Map.Entry to zType. But, when I cast it (as shown), it says illegal cast.

Sorry to bother again, and thanks for the help.

B

[Henry Wong]

Is there a way to make this work? It also says that I cannot cast from Map.Entry to zType. But, when I cast it (as shown), it says illegal cast.

The Map.Entry instance, that is returned from the iterator, is an inner class that holds both the key / value pair for the entry. Assuming that the zType is the value of the pair, then you need to...

zType z = (zType) entry.getValue();

Henry

[Brendan Crisler]

Got it!!! Thanks to everyone for their support.

B

[Brendan Crisler]

I do have another question:

I would like to pull data from the map based on a specific key. Basically, if I'm given a specific string (key), I want to look through the map for that specific string (key) and pull the values for it. How would I go about doing that?

Thanks in advance.
B

[Henry Wong]

Originally posted by Brendan Crisler:
I do have another question:

I would like to pull data from the map based on a specific key. Basically, if I'm given a specific string (key), I want to look through the map for that specific string (key) and pull the values for it. How would I go about doing that?

Here is the JavaDoc for the HashMap class. Do you see a method in the API that does *exactly* what you want?

Henry

[Brendan Crisler]

It's all working perfectly now!!! Thanks again for all the help.