Copying a HashMap in Java

Question

I am trying to keep a temporary container of a class that contains member :

HashMap myobjectHashMap

A class called my

Answer 1

What you assign one object to another, all you're doing is copying the reference to the object, not the contents of it. What you need to do is take your object B and manually copy the contents of object A into it.

If you do this often, you might consider implementing a clone() method on the class that will create a new object of the same type, and copy all of it's contents into the new object.

Answer 2

If we want to copy an object in Java, there are two possibilities that we need to consider: a shallow copy and a deep copy.

The shallow copy is the approach when we only copy field values. Therefore, the copy might be dependent on the original object. In the deep copy approach, we make sure that all the objects in the tree are deeply copied, so the copy is not dependent on any earlier existing object that might ever change.

This question is the perfect definition for the application of the deep copy approach.

First, if you have a simple HashMap<Integer, List<T>> map then we just create a workaround like this. Creating a new instance of the List<T>.

public static <T> HashMap<Integer, List<T>> deepCopyWorkAround(HashMap<Integer, List<T>> original)
{
    HashMap<Integer, List<T>> copy = new HashMap<>();
    for (Map.Entry<Integer, List<T>> entry : original.entrySet()) {
        copy.put(entry.getKey(), new ArrayList<>(entry.getValue()));
    }
    return copy;
}

This one uses Stream.collect() method to create the clone map, but uses the same idea as the previous method.

public static <T> Map<Integer, List<T>> deepCopyStreamWorkAround(Map<Integer, List<T>> original)
{
    return original
            .entrySet()
            .stream()
            .collect(Collectors.toMap(Map.Entry::getKey, valueMapper -> new ArrayList<>(valueMapper.getValue())));
}   

But, if the instances inside T are also mutable objects we have a big problem. In this case a real deep copy is an alternative that solves this problem. Its advantage is that at least each mutable object in the object graph is recursively copied. Since the copy is not dependent on any mutable object that was created earlier, it won’t get modified by accident like we saw with the shallow copy.

To solve that this deep copy implementations will do the work.

public class DeepClone
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        Map<Long, Item> itemMap = Stream.of(
                entry(0L, new Item(2558584)),
                entry(1L, new Item(254243232)),
                entry(2L, new Item(986786)),
                entry(3L, new Item(672542)),
                entry(4L, new Item(4846)),
                entry(5L, new Item(76867467)),
                entry(6L, new Item(986786)),
                entry(7L, new Item(7969768)),
                entry(8L, new Item(68868486)),
                entry(9L, new Item(923)),
                entry(10L, new Item(986786)),
                entry(11L, new Item(549768)),
                entry(12L, new Item(796168)),
                entry(13L, new Item(868421)),
                entry(14L, new Item(923)),
                entry(15L, new Item(986786)),
                entry(16L, new Item(549768)),
                entry(17L, new Item(4846)),
                entry(18L, new Item(4846)),
                entry(19L, new Item(76867467)),
                entry(20L, new Item(986786)),
                entry(21L, new Item(7969768)),
                entry(22L, new Item(923)),
                entry(23L, new Item(4846)),
                entry(24L, new Item(986786)),
                entry(25L, new Item(549768))
        ).collect(entriesToMap());


        Map<Long, Item> clone = DeepClone.deepClone(itemMap);
        clone.remove(1L);
        clone.remove(2L);

        System.out.println(itemMap);
        System.out.println(clone);
    }

    private DeepClone() {}

    public static <T> T deepClone(final T input)
    {
        if (input == null) return null;

        if (input instanceof Map<?, ?>) {
            return (T) deepCloneMap((Map<?, ?>) input);
        } else if (input instanceof Collection<?>) {
            return (T) deepCloneCollection((Collection<?>) input);
        } else if (input instanceof Object[]) {
            return (T) deepCloneObjectArray((Object[]) input);
        } else if (input.getClass().isArray()) {
            return (T) clonePrimitiveArray((Object) input);
        }

        return input;
    }

    private static Object clonePrimitiveArray(final Object input)
    {
        final int length = Array.getLength(input);
        final Object output = Array.newInstance(input.getClass().getComponentType(), length);
        System.arraycopy(input, 0, output, 0, length);
        return output;
    }

    private static <E> E[] deepCloneObjectArray(final E[] input)
    {
        final E[] clone = (E[]) Array.newInstance(input.getClass().getComponentType(), input.length);
        for (int i = 0; i < input.length; i++) {
            clone[i] = deepClone(input[i]);
        }

        return clone;
    }

    private static <E> Collection<E> deepCloneCollection(final Collection<E> input)
    {
        Collection<E> clone;
        if (input instanceof LinkedList<?>) {
            clone = new LinkedList<>();
        } else if (input instanceof SortedSet<?>) {
            clone = new TreeSet<>();
        } else if (input instanceof Set) {
            clone = new HashSet<>();
        } else {
            clone = new ArrayList<>();
        }

        for (E item : input) {
            clone.add(deepClone(item));
        }

        return clone;
    }

    private static <K, V> Map<K, V> deepCloneMap(final Map<K, V> map)
    {
        Map<K, V> clone;
        if (map instanceof LinkedHashMap<?, ?>) {
            clone = new LinkedHashMap<>();
        } else if (map instanceof TreeMap<?, ?>) {
            clone = new TreeMap<>();
        } else {
            clone = new HashMap<>();
        }

        for (Map.Entry<K, V> entry : map.entrySet()) {
            clone.put(deepClone(entry.getKey()), deepClone(entry.getValue()));
        }

        return clone;
    }
}

Answer 3

In Java, when you write:

Object objectA = new Object();
Object objectB = objectA;

objectA and objectB are the same and point to the same reference. Changing one will change the other. So if you change the state of objectA (not its reference) objectB will reflect that change too.

However, if you write:

objectA = new Object()

Then objectB is still pointing to the first object you created (original objectA) while objectA is now pointing to a new Object.

Answer 4

You can also use

clone()

Method to copy all elements from one hashmap to another hashmap

Program for copy all elements from one hashmap to another

import java.util.HashMap;

public class CloneHashMap {    
     public static void main(String a[]) {    
        HashMap hashMap = new HashMap();    
        HashMap hashMap1 = new HashMap();    
        hashMap.put(1, "One");
        hashMap.put(2, "Two");
        hashMap.put(3, "Three");
        System.out.println("Original HashMap : " + hashMap);
        hashMap1 = (HashMap) hashMap.clone();
        System.out.println("Copied HashMap : " + hashMap1);    
    }    
}

source : http://www.tutorialdata.com/examples/java/collection-framework/hashmap/copy-all-elements-from-one-hashmap-to-another

Answer 5

The difference is that in C++ your object is on the stack, whereas in Java, your object is in the heap. If A and B are Objects, any time in Java you do:

B = A

A and B point to the same object, so anything you do to A you do to B and vice versa.

Use new HashMap() if you want two different objects.

And you can use Map.putAll(...) to copy data between two Maps.

Answer 6

Since Java 10 it is possible to use

Map.copyOf

for creating a shallow copy, which is also immutable. (Here is its Javadoc). For a deep copy, as mentioned in this answer you, need some kind of value mapper to make a safe copy of values. You don't need to copy keys though, since they must be immutable.