hashtable keys() keySet() which is better - hashtable

Just curiously I am asking which is the better method to use Hashtable.keys() or Hashtable.keySet(). Any one would have been sufficient. Why have they given 2 methods with different return types. Is there any performance drawback/benefit of one over the other ?

keySet is there because
it returns a Set view of the keys contained in this Hashtable. The Set is backed by the Hashtable, so changes to the Hashtable are reflected in the Set, and vice-versa. The Set supports element removal (which removes the corresponding entry from the Hashtable), but not element addition.
And keys just returns an enumeration of the keys in this hashtable, no changes will be reflected after getting enumeration.

Besides the funcitonal difference mentioned by Rahul, Hashtable itself is an old artifact of earlier java version and retrofitted to implement Map interface.
So keySet is a later construct required by the Map interface.
Additionally, if this is new code that you are writing, you should read up the api details for this data structure on http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/util/Hashtable.html and see if you should consider the guideline and use HashMap or other later Collections instead.

Related

Updating an object in a store in Svelte, is it by value or by reference?

Check out this Svelte REPL. Notice how I access the global state – which is an object – by key and also iterate over its values in App.svelte. So I also create a derived list of these values in global.js.
In general, is this the "Sveltonic" way (regarding performance, syntax, ...)?
I am unsure what happens inside .update() (in SetThings.svelte). Will the full object or parts get copied into the old object? Or will the variable referencing the old object be reassigned to the new object?
Regarding part one of the question: It is unwise to use an outermost object. Instead, I now use a list and let the child objects have their indexes as keys. As shown in the Svelte docs, for example here.
Regarding part two of the question, it seems the object (or parts of it) is not copied. See update() → set() → safe_not_equal() (returns true in this case) → value = value

oData v4 - ordering outer entity on property in related one-to-many entities

I have an oData model with a couple of one-to-many relationship, say person->addresses and person->driving-licences. I would like to be able to sort the result set based on properties in the address entity and driving licence entity. As there could be more than one address, I would initially select a single item from the addresses set, based on a property called IsPrimary. As there could be more that one driving licence, I would select the 'UK' driving licence. Is this possible?
I was hoping I could do something like:
/people?$expand=addresses($filter=isPrimary eq true),drivinglicences($filter=country eq 'UK')&$orderby=addresses/postcode,drivinglicences/active
Unfortunately I get the following error:
"The query specified in the URI is not valid. The parent value for a property access of a property 'isPrimary' is not a single value. Property access can only be applied to a single value."
Does anyone know if what I'm trying to do is supported by the spec? Or whether it is an issue with my query? Or whether it is an issue with the .NET library.
I'm using:
Microsoft.AspNet.OData - 7.2.3
Many Thanks.
What you see here is by design, or rather not supported by the specification, the error message even highlights the only type of expressions supported:
The query specified in the URI is not valid. The parent value for a property access of a property 'isPrimary' is not a single value. Property access can only be applied to a single value.
So the simplest solution is to modify the API either to include a Function bound to the people collection that applies the $filter or $order directly, or a Function that returns the data in a new shape, one that only has perhaps a singleton PrimaryAddress property. How you include driving license in this result is up to you, it could even be a parameter to the function, perhaps your people controller has a queryable function with this signature:
[EnableQuery]
public IHttpActionResult WithLicences(string countryCode)
However that is out of the scope of OPs question about specific syntax support
Although it seems like an important feature, we must remember that $select (Projection) and $filter are evaluated at different points in time, OData queries follow a similar execution sequence to SQL however the filter criteria and $orderby are evaluated separately, and the projection of the resultset is the last evaluation to be applied.
Due to $filter and $orderby being applied independently, neither concept is even aware of the other and as such neither can reference or assume to be applied before the other.
You can prove this by specifying a field in the $orderby and/or $filter that is not included in the $select, you can even reference singleton navigation fields that are not included in an $expand and the query will evaluate correctly.
The OData spec is similar to a law document, in that to properly understand and apply it we need to understand the original intent of the authors. We can get an initial understanding from the early listing of Addressing Entities
Addressing Entities describes functions that can be bound to collections or entities that return either a single entity or a collection of entities
By allowing special provision of custom functions to be applied the authors are encouraging API designers to provide natural extensions to their resource endpoints that can facilitate the execution of pre-determined queries that may be otherwise complex or problematic to express in pure OData query syntax.
In other words, we are encouraged to customise our APIs to make them easier for the end process to consume, and to guide the consuming developer to make the best use of the API, they shouldn't have to discover everything from first principals.
To achieve OPs type of query in pure SQL would still require either a nested lookup, CTE or self join... advanced syntax. In OData v4, the specification does not provide a syntax for targeting specific items within a collection for path expressions (of which $orderby derives from)
5.1.1.15 Path Expressions
Properties and navigation properties of the entity type of the set of resources that are addressed by the request URL can be used as operands or function parameters, as shown in the preceding examples.
Properties of complex properties can be used via the same syntax as in resource paths, i.e. by specifying the name of a complex property, followed by a forward slash (/) and the name of a property of the complex property, and so on,
Properties and navigation properties of entities related with a target cardinality 0..1 or 1 can be used by specifying the navigation property, followed by a forward slash (/) and the name of a property of the related entity, and so on.
If a complex property is null, or no entity is related (in case of target cardinality 0..1), its value, and the values of its components, are treated as null.
RE: I couldn't find anything explicit in the spec. :)
That is the very thing about the OData specification,the specification does not list what is not supported, only what should be supported. So by omission, if you cannot find a reference to how to do something, then that something is not required to be supported.
Introduction http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/odata/v4.01/odata-v4.01-part2-url-conventions.html#sec_Introduction ... This specification defines a set of recommended (but not required) rules for constructing URLs to identify the data and metadata exposed by an OData service as well as a set of reserved URL query string operators, which if accepted by an OData service, MUST be implemented as required by this document.
This has been on ongoing discussion held in may threads, recently https://stackoverflow.com/a/55324393/1690217
Many people complain that this is surely a fundamental feature of a data access platform, however it is important to respect the original intent of the OData platform and keep our APIs simple by providing customised endpoints to suit our business domain.

Hazelcast map: using equals for Map keys

I'm using Hazelcast 2.6.
I have a map where the keys are Objects.
As I can read from the Hazelcast documentation http://hazelcast.org/docs/latest/javadoc/com/hazelcast/core/IMap.html
"This class is not a general-purpose ConcurrentMap implementation! While this class implements the Map interface, it intentionally violates Map's general contract, which mandates the use of the equals method when comparing objects. Instead of the equals method this implementation compares the serialized byte version of the objects."
There is a way to force Hazelcast using equals instead of the serialized byte version of the objects?
I found the answer:
In Hazelcast you can't rely on the equals/hashcode defined for the key object.
You have to use objects that contains just the attributes that makes it unique.
From here: http://hazelcast.org/mastering-hazelcast/chapter-5/#hashcode-and-equals
In most cases you probably will make use of some basic type like a
Long, Integer or String as key. But in some cases you will need to
create custom keys. But to do it correctly in Hazelcast, you need to
understand how this mechanism [which mechanism?] works because it
works differently compared to traditional map implementations. When
you store a key/value in a Hazelcast map, instead of storing the
Object, the object are serialized to byte arrays and these are stored.
To use the hash/equals in Hazelcast you need to know the following
rules:
for keys: the hash/equals is determined based on the content of the
byte array, so equal keys need to result in equal byte arrays. See
[serialization chapter; serializable for warning].
for values: the hash/equals is determined based on the
in-memory-format; for BINARY the binary format is used. For OBJECT and
CACHED the equals of the object is used.
If you want to use your equals implementation, you can try the setting the in-memory format for the map to be "Object". The data will then be stored in deserialized form.

Multiple "default" properties/methods in a VB6 class?

I am trying to make a replacement VB6 class for the Scripting.Dictionary class from SCRRUN.DLL. Scripting.Dictionary has (among other things) a "Keys" method that returns an array of keys, and a read/write "Item" property that returns the item associated with a key. I am confused about this, because both of them seem to be defaults for the class. That is:
For Each X In MyDict
Is equivalent to:
For Each X In MyDict.Keys
Which to me implies that "Keys" is the default operation for the class, but:
MyDict("MyKey") = "MyValue"
MsgBox MyDict("MyKey")
Is equivalent to:
MyDict.Item("MyKey") = "MyValue"
MsgBox MyDict.Item("MyKey")
Which to me implies that "Item" is the default operation for the class.
I've never before created a VB6 class that had a default operation, so upon realizing this, I thought perhaps I could define multiple default operations as long as they all have different signatures, which they do: Keys is nullary, the Item getter takes a Variant, and the Item setter takes two Variants. But this doesn't seem to be allowed: When I use "Tools/Procedure Attributes" to set the Keys function to be the default, and then I use it to set the Item property to be the default, the IDE complains that a default has already been set.
So I think I'm misunderstanding something fundamental here. What is going on in the Scripting.Dictionary object that makes it able to act as if "Keys" is the default in some contexts, but as if "Item" is the default in others? And whatever it is, can I accomplish the same thing in VB6?
OK, answering my own question: I haven't tried this yet, but I gather that "Item" should be made the default, and that I should add an entirely new function called "NewEnum" that looks something like the following (slightly modified from an example in Francesco Balena's "Programming Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0" book):
Public Function NewEnum() As IUnknown
Set NewEnum = m_Keys.[_NewEnum]
End Function
(where "m_Keys" is a Collection containing the keys), and then use Tools/Procedure Attributes to hide NewEnum and to set its ProcID to -4.
What you are observing is the difference between the default member and a collection enumerator. A COM object (including VB6 classes) can have both.
You can identify the default property of a class by looking in the Object Browser for the tiny blue globe or the words "default member of" in the description (see Contents of the Object Browser). The Object Browser will not identify an enumerator method, but if you look at the class's interface definition using OLE View or TypeLib Browser (free but registration required) it's DispId will be 0xfffffffc or -4.
In your own class, you can mark the default property by setting the Procedure ID to "(default)" in the Procedure Attributes dialog (see Making a Property or Method the Default). You already listed the steps for setting up the collection enumerator in your own answer, but you can find this listed as well in the Programmer's Guide topic Creating Your Own Collection Class: The House of Bricks.
Scripting.Dictionary has a dirty secret:
It does not handle enumeration at all, it returns big ugly Variant arrays and your For Each loops iterate over those.
This is one of the reasons why a Dictionary can actually be far less efficient than a standard VB6 Collection.

What is main advantage of Tuple?

Can anyone tell me what is the main advantage of using tuple? In what scenarios do I need to use these?
I assume that you're talking about the Tuple<> type and not anonymous tuple classes.
Like an anonymous type, Tuple<> allows you to avoid declaring a new class just to group a few objects. Unlike anonymous types, tuple types have known names and thus can be used as method return and parameter values, etc.
Personally, I try to avoid heavy use of Tuple<> because it can make for difficult to understand code, expecially when used with primitive types (e. g. if you see a Tuple it's not obvious what each field represents).
One place I have found tuples to be very useful is as dictionary keys. Because Tuples implement Equals() and GetHashCode() (not ==, though!), they are perfect for things like private dictionaries that cache information based on a compound key.
It's used mostly to avoid declaring a class / struct with a few properties only for the sake of passing a group of objects around, where only one object can be passed.
Lets say I have a list of urls to go through and if i get an error (4xx or 5xx) I want to build a list and then either later display it to the user or just look at it in my debugger.
I'd catch the web exception and have a Tuple<string, int> (url, http error code) instead of creating a struct for one or two functions to use. Heck it might even be a foreach loop with a breakpoint on if the list has more then 0 items. Thats when it is useful.

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