Question

LinkedHashMap is used to preserve insertion order in the map, but this only works for mutable maps. Which is the immutable Map implementation that preserves insertion order?

Answer 1

ListMap implements an immutable map using a list-based data structure, and thus preserves insertion order.

scala> import collection.immutable.ListMap
import collection.immutable.ListMap

scala> ListMap(1 -> 2) + (3 -> 4)
res31: scala.collection.immutable.ListMap[Int,Int] = Map(1 -> 2, 3 -> 4)

scala> res31 + (6 -> 9)
res32: scala.collection.immutable.ListMap[Int,Int] = Map(1 -> 2, 3 -> 4, 6 -> 9)

The following extension method – Seq#toListMap can be quite useful when working with ListMaps.

scala> import scalaz._, Scalaz._, Liskov._
import scalaz._
import Scalaz._
import Liskov._

scala> :paste
// Entering paste mode (ctrl-D to finish)

implicit def seqW[A](xs: Seq[A]) = new SeqW(xs)
class SeqW[A](xs: Seq[A]) {
  def toListMap[B, C](implicit ev: A <~< (B, C)): ListMap[B, C] = {
    ListMap(co[Seq, A, (B, C)](ev)(xs) : _*)  
  }
}


// Exiting paste mode, now interpreting.

seqW: [A](xs: Seq[A])SeqW[A]
defined class SeqW

scala> Seq((2, 4), (11, 89)).toListMap
res33: scala.collection.immutable.ListMap[Int,Int] = Map(2 -> 4, 11 -> 89)