Java:
Using associative arrays

How to:

Java doesn’t have built-in associative arrays like some languages do, but it provides the Map interface and classes like HashMap and TreeMap to fill that role. Here’s how to use a HashMap:

import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;

public class LearnMaps {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        // Creating a HashMap
        Map<String, Integer> ageOfFriends = new HashMap<>();
        
        // Adding elements
        ageOfFriends.put("Alice", 24);
        ageOfFriends.put("Bob", 30);
        ageOfFriends.put("Charlie", 28);

        // Accessing elements
        System.out.println("Alice's age: " + ageOfFriends.get("Alice"));
        
        // Handling non-existent keys
        System.out.println("Age of someone not in the map: " + ageOfFriends.getOrDefault("Dan", -1));

        // Iterating over elements
        for (Map.Entry<String, Integer> entry : ageOfFriends.entrySet()) {
            System.out.println(entry.getKey() + " is " + entry.getValue() + " years old.");
        }
    }
}

Sample Output:

Alice's age: 24
Age of someone not in the map: -1
Alice is 24 years old.
Bob is 30 years old.
Charlie is 28 years old.

HashMap is only one implementation. If your keys are unique and you need them sorted, consider TreeMap. For a map that retains order of insertion, LinkedHashMap is your friend.

Deep Dive

Maps in Java are part of the Collections Framework, introduced in JDK 1.2, but have seen significant improvements over the years, including the introduction of the forEach method in Java 8 for easier iteration over entries. The choice of map implementation (HashMap, LinkedHashMap, TreeMap) should be dictated by your specific needs in terms of ordering and performance. For instance, HashMap offers O(1) time performance for the basic operations (get and put), assuming the hash function disperses the elements properly among the buckets. However, if you need sorting based on natural ordering or custom comparators, TreeMap is the go-to, providing O(log n) time for insertion and lookup.

Before Map was introduced, associative arrays were usually implemented with two parallel arrays (one for keys, one for values) or custom data structures with less efficiency. Current alternatives to Map and its implementations could include third-party libraries offering specialized maps, such as bidirectional maps (BiMap in Google’s Guava library) for cases where you need to find a key by its value efficiently. However, for most use cases in Java, the standard library’s maps are robust and flexible enough to handle the task.