Java Cookbook, 4th Edition

Chapter 7. Structuring Data with Java

7.0 Introduction

Almost every application beyond “Hello, World” needs to keep track of some structured data. A simple numeric problem might work with three or four numbers only, but most applications have groups of similar data items. A GUI-based application may need to keep track of a number of dialog windows. A personal information manager, or PIM, needs to keep track of a number of, well, persons. An operating system needs to keep track of who is allowed to log in, who is currently logged in, and what those users are doing. A library needs to keep track of who has books checked out and when they’re due. A network server may need to keep track of its active clients. A pattern emerges here, and it revolves around variations of what has traditionally been called data structuring.

There are data structures in the memory of a running program; there is structure in the data in a file on disk, and there is structure in the information stored in a database. In this chapter, we concentrate on the first aspect: in-memory data. We’ll cover the second aspect in Chapter 10; the third is out of scope for this book.

If you had to think about in-memory data, you might want to compare it to a collection of index cards in a filing box or to a treasure hunt where each clue leads to the next. Or you might think of it like my desk—apparently scattered, but actually a very powerful collection filled with meaningful information. Each of these is a good analogy ...