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

Question

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

Which is more efficient for non-threaded applications?

Answer 1

Apart from the differences already mentioned, it should be noted that since Java 8, HashMap dynamically replaces the Nodes (linked list) used in each bucket with TreeNodes (red-black tree), so that even if high hash collisions exist, the worst case when searching is

O(log(n)) for HashMap Vs O(n) in Hashtable.

*The aforementioned improvement has not been applied to Hashtable yet, but only to HashMap, LinkedHashMap, and ConcurrentHashMap.

FYI, currently,

• TREEIFY_THRESHOLD = 8 : if a bucket contains more than 8 nodes, the linked list is transformed into a balanced tree.
• UNTREEIFY_THRESHOLD = 6 : when a bucket becomes too small (due to removal or resizing) the tree is converted back to linked list.