Transform a set into a map using the current lambda API

[Michael Nascimento]

On Tue, Mar 26, 2013 at 10:01 PM, Brian Goetz <brian.goetz at oracle.com> wrote:
> You should not need the explicit types on HashMap::new.  You can use Map::putAll instead of (m,n) -> m.putAll(n).  So this becomes:
>
>   properties.stream().collect(HashMap::new, (m,p) -> m.put(p.name, p), Map::putAll);
>
> You could also package these lambdas into a Collector, whose factory method takes the V->K function, so you could write:
>
>   properties.stream().collect(toBackwardsMap(Property::getName)));
>
>
> This problem is basically the backwards version of what is implemented by Collectors.toMap.

I am afraid this will be one of the most common usage patterns in Java
EE applications. It is very common to index objects by their primary
keys or unique keys. You need this for parsing a file, for SQL
optimization, grouping, etc. Many view technologies (JSF for instance)
require objects to be "serialized" into a view acceptable form as
well, so you have to resort to this. There is the
reduce/groupingBy/throwingMerger alternative as well, but I guess this
is the main "pattern" missing in Collectors for these applications.

Regards,
Michael