Java – Arrays of Arrays in Java

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This is a nasty one for me… I'm a PHP guy working in Java on a JSP project. I know how to do what I'm attempting through too much code and a complete lack of finesse.

I'd prefer to do it right. Here is the situation:

I'm writing a small display to show customers what days they can water their lawns based on their watering group (ABCDE) and what time of year it is. Our seasons look like this:
Summer (5-1 to 8-31)
Spring (3-1 to 4-30)
Fall (9-1 to 10-31)
Winter (11-1 to 2-28)

An example might be:

If I'm in group A, here would be my allowed times:
Winter: Mondays only
Spring: Tues, Thurs, Sat
Summer: Any Day
Fall: Tues, Thurs, Sat

If I was writing this in PHP I would use arrays like this:

//M=Monday,t=Tuesday,T=Thursday.... etc
$schedule["A"]["Winter"]='M';
$schedule["A"]["Spring"]='tTS';
$schedule["A"]["Summer"]='Any';
$schedule["A"]["Fall"]='tTS';
$schedule["B"]["Winter"]='t';

I COULD make the days arrays (array("Tuesday","Thursday","Saturday")) etc, but it is not necessary for what I'm really trying to accomplish.

I will also need to setup arrays to determine what season I'm in:

$seasons["Summer"]["start"]=0501;
$seasons["Summer"]["end"]=0801;

Can anyone suggest a really cool way to do this? I will have today's date and the group letter. I will need to get out of my function a day (M) or a series of days (tTS), (Any).

Best Answer

You could do essentially the same code with Hashtables (or some other Map):

Hashtable<String, Hashtable<String, String>> schedule
    = new Hashtable<String, Hashtable<String, String>>();
schedule.put("A", new Hashtable<String, String>());
schedule.put("B", new Hashtable<String, String>());
schedule.put("C", new Hashtable<String, String>());
schedule.put("D", new Hashtable<String, String>());
schedule.put("E", new Hashtable<String, String>());

schedule.get("A").put("Winter", "M");
schedule.get("A").put("Spring", "tTS");
// Etc...

Not as elegant, but then again, Java isn't a dynamic language, and it doesn't have hashes on the language level.

Note: You might be able to do a better solution, this just popped in my head as I read your question.

Related Solutions

Java – What are the differences between a HashMap and a Hashtable in Java

There are several differences between HashMap and Hashtable in Java:

Hashtable is synchronized, whereas HashMap is not. This makes HashMap better for non-threaded applications, as unsynchronized Objects typically perform better than synchronized ones.
Hashtable does not allow null keys or values. HashMap allows one null key and any number of null values.
One of HashMap's subclasses is LinkedHashMap, so in the event that you'd want predictable iteration order (which is insertion order by default), you could easily swap out the HashMap for a LinkedHashMap. This wouldn't be as easy if you were using Hashtable.

Since synchronization is not an issue for you, I'd recommend HashMap. If synchronization becomes an issue, you may also look at ConcurrentHashMap.

Java – Is Java “pass-by-reference” or “pass-by-value”

Java is always pass-by-value. Unfortunately, when we deal with objects we are really dealing with object-handles called references which are passed-by-value as well. This terminology and semantics easily confuse many beginners.

It goes like this:

public static void main(String[] args) {
    Dog aDog = new Dog("Max");
    Dog oldDog = aDog;

    // we pass the object to foo
    foo(aDog);
    // aDog variable is still pointing to the "Max" dog when foo(...) returns
    aDog.getName().equals("Max"); // true
    aDog.getName().equals("Fifi"); // false
    aDog == oldDog; // true
}

public static void foo(Dog d) {
    d.getName().equals("Max"); // true
    // change d inside of foo() to point to a new Dog instance "Fifi"
    d = new Dog("Fifi");
    d.getName().equals("Fifi"); // true
}

In the example above aDog.getName() will still return "Max". The value aDog within main is not changed in the function foo with the Dog "Fifi" as the object reference is passed by value. If it were passed by reference, then the aDog.getName() in main would return "Fifi" after the call to foo.

Likewise:

public static void main(String[] args) {
    Dog aDog = new Dog("Max");
    Dog oldDog = aDog;

    foo(aDog);
    // when foo(...) returns, the name of the dog has been changed to "Fifi"
    aDog.getName().equals("Fifi"); // true
    // but it is still the same dog:
    aDog == oldDog; // true
}

public static void foo(Dog d) {
    d.getName().equals("Max"); // true
    // this changes the name of d to be "Fifi"
    d.setName("Fifi");
}

In the above example, Fifi is the dog's name after call to foo(aDog) because the object's name was set inside of foo(...). Any operations that foo performs on d are such that, for all practical purposes, they are performed on aDog, but it is not possible to change the value of the variable aDog itself.

For more information on pass by reference and pass by value, consult the following SO answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/430958/6005228. This explains more thoroughly the semantics and history behind the two and also explains why Java and many other modern languages appear to do both in certain cases.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Java – What are the differences between a HashMap and a Hashtable in Java

Java – Is Java “pass-by-reference” or “pass-by-value”

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