A data structure lets us hold on to lots of data in a single place. It is a programming construct to aggregate lots of values into one value. Many types of data structures exist in various languages. A few examples are lists, dictionaries, arrays, tuples, etc.
Java provides powerful and flexible structures to store data, known as collections. The Java collections framework refers to the various interfaces the language provides for implementing collection types.
Here, we’ll discuss a collection called ArrayList and compare it to the
Array class. We’ll then introduce a third collection type called HashMap.
These three collection types will be sufficient for our basic Java needs.
For more, refer to the official Java documentation on collections.
We’ll explore collections in Java by looking at different versions of the same program. The program functions as a gradebook, allowing a user (a professor or teacher) to enter the class roster for a course, along with each student’s grade. It then prints the class roster along with the average grade. In each variation of this program, the grading system could be anything numeric, such as a 0.0-4.0 point scale, or a 0-100 percentage scale.
A test run of the program might yield the following:
Enter your students (or ENTER to finish):
Chris
Jesse
Sally
Grade for Chris: 3.0
Grade for Jesse: 4.0
Grade for Sally: 3.5
Class roster:
Chris (3.0)
Jesse (4.0)
Sally (3.5)
Average grade: 3.5
We’ll look at the gradebook using an Arraylist first.