Making a Collection or Map unmodifiable
Often it is convenient to create a read-only version of a Collection or Map. The Collections class allows you to do this by passing the original container into a method that hands back a read-only version. There are four variations on this method, one each for Collection (if you can’t treat a Collection as a more specific type), List, Set, and Map. This example shows the proper way to build read-only versions of each:
//: c11:ReadOnly.java
// Using the Collections.unmodifiable methods.
import java.util.*;
import com.bruceeckel.util.*;
public class ReadOnly {
private static Collections2.StringGenerator gen =
Collections2.countries;
public static void main(String[] args) {
Collection c = new ArrayList();
Collections2.fill(c, gen, 25); // Insert data
c = Collections.unmodifiableCollection(c);
System.out.println(c); // Reading is OK
//! c.add("one"); // Can't change it
List a = new ArrayList();
Collections2.fill(a, gen.reset(), 25);
a = Collections.unmodifiableList(a);
ListIterator lit = a.listIterator();
System.out.println(lit.next()); // Reading is OK
//! lit.add("one"); // Can't change it
Set s = new HashSet();
Collections2.fill(s, gen.reset(), 25);
s = Collections.unmodifiableSet(s);
System.out.println(s); // Reading is OK
//! s.add("one"); // Can't change it
Map m = new HashMap();
Collections2.fill(m, Collections2.geography, 25);
m = Collections.unmodifiableMap(m);
System.out.println(m); // Reading is OK
//! m.put("Ralph", "Howdy!");
}
} ///:~
Calling the “unmodifiable” method for a particular type does not cause compile-time checking, but once the transformation has occurred, any calls to methods that modify the contents of a particular container will produce an UnsupportedOperationException.
In each case, you must fill the container with meaningful data before you make it read-only. Once it is loaded, the best approach is to replace the existing reference with the reference that is produced by the “unmodifiable” call. That way, you don’t run the risk of accidentally trying to change the contents once you’ve made it unmodifiable. On the other hand, this tool also allows you to keep a modifiable container as private within a class and to return a read-only reference to that container from a method call. So, you can change it from within the class, but everyone else can only read it.
