Question

Needs:

• Storing objects of a class which overrides equals and hash code
• Will be looping and shoving objects into the datastructure
• Need to be able to call contains to check whether a certain object is stored in the structure
• If contains returns true then fetch that specific object from the structure and call a certain getter on that object

Options I’ve considered:

• Map – this works for all the needs but I don’t really have a map (key and a value). all I have is bunch of objects. Would it be a good practice to forcefully use a map by storing objects as key and integer or something in the value?

• Set would work, however, it doesn’t have a fetch method like get.

• List would also work, but it doesn’t have a method to fetch that is non index based. Meaning, once contains returns true I’ll have to loop through the list to find the index of my particular object and then fetch it.

I’m open to using different libraries like apache commons or guava for example.

Answer 1

List would also work, but it doesn’t have a method to fetch that is non index based.

List has an indexOf(Object) method which will do exactly what you want.