How to directly initialize a HashMap (in a literal way)?

Question

Is there some way of initializing a Java HashMap like this?:

Map test = 
    new HashMap{\"test\":\"test\",\"test\         


        

Answer 1

If you allow 3rd party libs, you can use Guava's ImmutableMap to achieve literal-like brevity:

Map test = ImmutableMap.of("k1", "v1", "k2", "v2");

This works for up to 5 key/value pairs, otherwise you can use its builder:

Map test = ImmutableMap.builder()
    .put("k1", "v1")
    .put("k2", "v2")
    ...
    .build();

• note that Guava's ImmutableMap implementation differs from Java's HashMap implementation (most notably it is immutable and does not permit null keys/values)
• for more info, see Guava's user guide article on its immutable collection types