Generics : 57
Implementing a Map : 56
Hashing : 55
Binary Search : 54
Quicksort : 53
Merge Sort : 52
Sorting Algorithms : 51
Practice with Recursion : 50
Trees and Recursion : 49
Trees : 48
Recursion : 47
Lists Review and Performance : 46
Linked Lists : 45
Algorithms and Lists : 44
Lambda Expressions : 43
Anonymous Classes : 42
Practice with Interfaces : 41
Implementing Interfaces : 40
Using Interfaces : 39
Working with Exceptions : 38
Throwing Exceptions : 37
Catching Exceptions : 36
References and Polymorphism : 35
References : 34
Data Modeling 2 : 33
Equality and Object Copying : 32
Polymorphism : 31
Inheritance : 30
Data Modeling 1 : 29
Companion Objects : 28
Encapsulation : 27
Constructors : 26
Objects, Continued : 25
Introduction to Objects : 24
Compilation and Immutability : 23
Practice with Collections : 22
Maps and Sets : 21
Lists and Type Parameters : 20
Imports and Libraries : 19
Multidimensional Arrays : 18
Practice with Strings : 17
null : 16
Algorithms and Strings : 15
Strings : 14
Functions and Algorithms : 13
Practice with Functions : 12
More About Functions : 11
Errors and Debugging : 10
Functions : 9
Practice with Loops and Algorithms : 8
Algorithms I : 7
Loops : 6
Arrays : 5
Compound Conditionals : 4
Conditional Expressions and Statements : 3
Operations on Variables : 2
Variables and Types : 1
Hello, world! : 0
Implementing a Map
val map = mutableMapOf<String, String>()
map["you"] = "are not alone"
println(map["you"])
println(map["am I alone?"])
map["am I alone?"] = "Nope."
println(map["am I alone?"])
We’ve seen how to use maps.
Now let’s explore how to implement one.
They may seem mysterious, but as we create our own map we’ll see one way that
they can work, and understand more about the inherent performance tradeoffs.
Maps are incredibly useful.
But they are also straightforward to implement!
Let’s create our own simple Map
implementation, one step at a time.
We’ll use an approach called a hash table, and wind up with something that is an interesting hybrid between an array and a linked list.
First, let’s set up our Map
class and stub out the methods that we’ll need to implement.
We’ll also create a few helper inner classes that we will use along the way.
Interactive Walkthrough
Click on an icon below or the play button above to start!
Before we continue, let’s also examine what we’re building visually to hopefully help us gain some intuition.
Second, we’ll implement set
.
It’s hard to tell if the Map
is working yet, but we’ll add a size method to help.
Interactive Walkthrough
Click on an icon below or the play button above to start!
Next we’ll implement get
and then be able to test out our Map
.
Interactive Walkthrough
Click on an icon below or the play button above to start!
Finally we’ll consider the performance of our map in several different dimensions.
Interactive Walkthrough
Click on an icon below or the play button above to start!
I bet you were wondering: Did we miss the debugging challenge?
Nope!
More Practice
Need more practice? Head over to the practice page.