Choosing the right collection

How do you choose the right collection for specific cases? I'm sure many of us have asked that question at least once. Let me try to help you to make the right choice:

• The List, Set (such as LinkedHasSet), and Map (such as LinkedHashMap) classes are perfect choices for general purposes. They have enough functionality to cover all of your needs.

• Choosing a class implements the minimum functionality that you require. Don't choose a class that supports sorting if you don't actually need it.

Here is a table that combines all the classes with the supported features:

Class	Order	Sort	Random access	Key-values	Duplicates	Null
List	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
LinkedList	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
Set or LinkedHashSet	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
HashSet	No	No	No	No	No	No
SplayTreeSet	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
Queue or ListQueue	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
Map or LinkedHashMap	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
HashMap	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes...