Question

In java, I want to compare two maps, like below, do we have existing API to do this ?

Thanks

Map<String, String> beforeMap ;
beforeMap.put("a", "1");
beforeMap.put("b", "2");
beforeMap.put("c", "3");

Map<String, String> afterMap ;
afterMap.put("a", "1");
afterMap.put("c", "333");

//--- it should give me:
b is missing, c value changed from '3' to '333'

Answer 1

I’d use removeAll() functionality of Set to to do set differences of keys to find additions and deletions. Actual changes can be detected by doing a set difference using the entry set as HashMap.Entry implements equals() using both key and value.

Set<String> removedKeys = new HashSet<String>(beforeMap.keySet());
removedKeys.removeAll(afterMap.keySet());

Set<String> addedKeys = new HashSet<String>(afterMap.keySet());
addedKeys.removeAll(beforeMap.keySet());

Set<Entry<String, String>> changedEntries = new HashSet<Entry<String, String>>(
        afterMap.entrySet());
changedEntries.removeAll(beforeMap.entrySet());

System.out.println("added " + addedKeys);
System.out.println("removed " + removedKeys);
System.out.println("changed " + changedEntries);

Output

added []
removed [b]
changed [c=333]