Key existence check in HashMap

Question

Is checking for key existence in HashMap always necessary?

I have a HashMap with say a 1000 entries and I am looking at improving the efficiency. If the HashMap is b

Answer 1

Just use containsKey() for clarity. It's fast and keeps the code clean and readable. The whole point of HashMaps is that the key lookup is fast, just make sure the hashCode() and equals() are properly implemented.