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

If you want a copy of the HashMap you need to construct a new one with.

myobjectListB = new HashMap<Integer,myObject>(myobjectListA);

This will create a (shallow) copy of the map.

Answer 2

Java supports shallow(not deep) copy concept

You can archive it using:

• constructor
• clone()
• putAll()

Answer 3

There is a small (HUGE) understatement here. If you want to copy a HashMap with nested structures, HashMap.putAll() will copy by reference, because it doesn't know how to exactly copy your object. For example:

import java.util.*;
class Playground {
    public static void main(String[ ] args) {
        Map<Integer, Map<Integer,List<Float>>> dataA = new HashMap<>();
        Map<Integer, Map<Integer,List<Float>>> dataB = new HashMap<>();

        dataA.put(1, new HashMap<>());
        dataB.putAll(dataA);

        assert(dataB.get(1).size() == 0);

        dataA.get(1).put(2, new ArrayList<>());

        if (dataB.get(1).size() == 1) { // true
            System.out.println(
                "Sorry object reference was copied - not the values");
        }
    }
}

So basically you will need to copy the fields yourself like here

List <Float> aX = new ArrayList<>(accelerometerReadingsX);
List <Float> aY = new ArrayList<>(accelerometerReadingsY);

List <Float> gX = new ArrayList<>(gyroscopeReadingsX);
List <Float> gY = new ArrayList<>(gyroscopeReadingsY);

Map<Integer, Map<Integer, Float>> readings = new HashMap<>();

Map<Integer,List<Float>> accelerometerReadings = new HashMap<>();
accelerometerReadings.put(X_axis, aX);
accelerometerReadings.put(Y_axis, aY);
readings.put(Sensor.TYPE_ACCELEROMETER, accelerometerReadings);

Map<Integer,List<Float>> gyroscopeReadings = new HashMap<>();
gyroscopeReadings.put(X_axis, gX);
gyroscopeReadings.put(Y_axis, gY);
readings.put(Sensor.TYPE_GYROSCOPE, gyroscopeReadings);

Answer 4

Since the OP has mentioned he does not have access to the base class inside of which exists a HashMap - I am afraid there are very few options available.

One (painfully slow and resource intensive) way of performing a deep copy of an object in Java is to abuse the 'Serializable' interface which many classes either intentionally - or unintentionally extend - and then utilise this to serialise your class to ByteStream. Upon de-serialisation you will have a deep copy of the object in question.

A guide for this can be found here: https://www.avajava.com/tutorials/lessons/how-do-i-perform-a-deep-clone-using-serializable.html

Answer 5

Since this question is still unanswered and I had a similar problem, I will try to answer this. The problem (as others already mentioned) is that you just copy references to the same object and thus a modify on the copy will also modify the origin object. So what you have to to is to copy the object (your map value) itself. The far easiest way to do so is to make all your objects implementing the serializeable interface. Then serialize and deserialize your map to get a real copy. You can do this by yourself or use the apache commons SerializationUtils#clone() which you can find here: https://commons.apache.org/proper/commons-lang/javadocs/api-2.6/org/apache/commons/lang/SerializationUtils.html But be aware this is the simplest approach but it is an expensive task to serialize and deserialize a lot of objects.