Copying a HashMap in Java

Question

I am trying to keep a temporary container of a class that contains member :

HashMap myobjectHashMap

A class called my

Answer 1

There is a small (HUGE) understatement here. If you want to copy a HashMap with nested structures, HashMap.putAll() will copy by reference, because it doesn't know how to exactly copy your object. For example:

import java.util.*;
class Playground {
    public static void main(String[ ] args) {
        Map>> dataA = new HashMap<>();
        Map>> dataB = new HashMap<>();

        dataA.put(1, new HashMap<>());
        dataB.putAll(dataA);

        assert(dataB.get(1).size() == 0);

        dataA.get(1).put(2, new ArrayList<>());

        if (dataB.get(1).size() == 1) { // true
            System.out.println(
                "Sorry object reference was copied - not the values");
        }
    }
}

So basically you will need to copy the fields yourself like here

List  aX = new ArrayList<>(accelerometerReadingsX);
List  aY = new ArrayList<>(accelerometerReadingsY);

List  gX = new ArrayList<>(gyroscopeReadingsX);
List  gY = new ArrayList<>(gyroscopeReadingsY);

Map> readings = new HashMap<>();

Map> accelerometerReadings = new HashMap<>();
accelerometerReadings.put(X_axis, aX);
accelerometerReadings.put(Y_axis, aY);
readings.put(Sensor.TYPE_ACCELEROMETER, accelerometerReadings);

Map> gyroscopeReadings = new HashMap<>();
gyroscopeReadings.put(X_axis, gX);
gyroscopeReadings.put(Y_axis, gY);
readings.put(Sensor.TYPE_GYROSCOPE, gyroscopeReadings);