Retrieving specific values in Multimap

Question

I\'m using a Multimap that has two values per key. Below is the code I\'m using to get each value separately:

The first bit of code gets the first object value:

Answer 1

Collection<Object> values = map.get(key);
checkState(values.size() == 2, String.format("Found %d values for key %s", values.size(), key));

return values.iterator().next(); // to get the first

Iterator<Object> it = values.iterator();
it.next(); // move the pointer to the second object
return it.next(); // get the second object

Answer 2

If you're using Guava, Iterables#get is probably what you want - it returns the Nth item from any iterable, example:

Multimap<String, String> myMultimap = ArrayListMultimap.create();

// and to return value from position:
return Iterables.get(myMultimap.get(key), position);

If you're using a ListMultimap then it behaves very much like a map to a List so you can directly call get(n).