Question

I have an interesting problem I would like some help with. I have implemented a couple of queues for two separate conditions, one based on FIFO and the other natural order of a key (ConcurrentMap). That is you can image both queues have the same data just ordered differently. The question I have (and I am looking for an efficient way of doing this) if I find the key in the ConcurrentMap based on some criteria, what is the best way of finding the “position” of the key in the FIFO map. Essentially I would like to know whether it is the firstkey (which is easy), or say it is the 10th key.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

I believe something like the code below will do the job. I’ve left the implementation of element –> key as an abstract method. Note the counter being used to assign increasing numbers to elements. Also note that if add(...) is being called by multiple threads, the elements in the FIFO are only loosely ordered. That forces the fancy max(...) and min(...) logic. Its also why the position is approximate. First and last are special cases. First can be indicated clearly. Last is tricky because the current implementation returns a real index.

Since this is an approximate location, I would suggest you consider making the API return a float between 0.0 and 1.0 to indicate relative position in the queue.

If your code needs to support removal using some means other than pop(...), you will need to use approximate size, and change the return to ((id - min) / (max - min)) * size, with all the appropriate int / float casting & rounding.

public abstract class ApproximateLocation<K extends Comparable<K>, T> {

    protected abstract K orderingKey(T element);

    private final ConcurrentMap<K, Wrapper<T>> _map = new ConcurrentSkipListMap<K, Wrapper<T>>();
    private final Deque<Wrapper<T>> _fifo = new LinkedBlockingDeque<Wrapper<T>>();
    private final AtomicInteger _counter = new AtomicInteger();

    public void add(T element) {
        K key = orderingKey(element);
        Wrapper<T> wrapper = new Wrapper<T>(_counter.getAndIncrement(), element);
        _fifo.add(wrapper);
        _map.put(key, wrapper);
    }

    public T pop() {
        Wrapper<T> wrapper = _fifo.pop();
        _map.remove(orderingKey(wrapper.value));
        return wrapper.value;
    }

    public int approximateLocation(T element) {
        Wrapper<T> wrapper = _map.get(orderingKey(element));
        Wrapper<T> first = _fifo.peekFirst();
        Wrapper<T> last = _fifo.peekLast();
        if (wrapper == null || first == null || last == null) {
            // element is not in composite structure; fifo has not been written to yet because of concurrency
            return -1;
        }
        int min = Math.min(wrapper.id, Math.min(first.id, last.id));
        int max = Math.max(wrapper.id, Math.max(first.id, last.id));
        if (wrapper == first || max == min) {
            return 0;
        }
        if (wrapper == last) {
            return max - min;
        }
        return wrapper.id - min;
    }

    private static class Wrapper<T> {
        final int id;
        final T value;

        Wrapper(int id, T value) {
            this.id = id;
            this.value = value;
        }
    }
}