treemap

Hi,

I am having trouble with the whole treemapping thing. I have a class called TokenCount which implements a class called Analyzer.

in the class there is a method called create a TreeMap to hold tokens
first it will check to see if the map contains the Key
if it does thsn it will add one to the Counter class
but if it doesn't
then it will add the token to the map.

I am unsure of how to add one to the counter and i am unsure of how to put it in the map.

this is what i have:
public class TokenCount implements Analyzer
{
private Counter counter;
private PropertiesManager propManager;
private Map tokenMap;

/**
need a map that sorts
* Basic constructor for TokenCount object. We set input to the
* PropManager which is an instance of the PropertiesManager.
*/
public TokenCount(PropertiesManager input)
{
tokenMap = new TreeMap;
propManager = input;
}
public void processToken(String token)
{
if((this.equals(token)))
{
// add one to counter
}
else
{
tokenMap.put();
}
any suggestions or hints pointers of where to look
I have a couple of books i have nbought on java and none of them had anything on maps/hashmaps/treemaps/
thanks
valarie
[ October 01, 2004: Message edited by: Valarie Brandt ]

Hi Valerie,

You phrased your questions very clearly, and I am sorry that you have not found anything
helpful in the Java books that you have looked at to date.

When you have a programming problem, a good approach is usually to try to break it
down into a series of smaller programming problems that are easier to solve. You pretty
much very nearly did that in the questions you posed. All you need to do is "connect the dots".

You can read all about TreeMap in Chapter 16 of Just Java, along with all the other
collection classes, but in case you don't have a copy handy, I'll remind you of some details:
1. TreeMap is just a Map, with a Really Cool underlying data structure.
We won't get into that data structure now (and don't ever need to) but it is called
a "red/black tree" if you want to look it up and learn about its amazing properties.

2. You put things into a map by calling put(key, value). E.g.
myMap.put(myKey, myValue);

3. You check if something is in a Map either by trying to put it in and seeing what you get back,
or by calling
myMap.get(myKey);

So that deals with the Map part of things, yes?

Counter sounds like it should be an int, rather than some class.
Add one to it with counter++;

So all you need to do is get very clear on what the key is and what the values are for
the data you want to store in the Map. (That's what maps do - store pairs of key/values).

And get rid of the bugs in your prototype code, like creating a new treemap every time
you call the token count constructor. You probably only want ONE treemap for the
whole program.

Hope this helps! Cheers,

Peter

that is a lot of help--
but the specs for the prjoect indicate that I have to use the counter class so --- I need to increment the counter for each unique token. I am just not sure how to increment in another class.

thanks
Valarie

I think I have the counter maybe??
but but
public TokenCount(PropertiesManager input)
{
tokenMap = new TreeMap();
propManager = input;
}

/**
* This method will check the map to see if the map contains the
* key(word), if it does contain the key then it will add one to the
* counter but if it does not contain the key then it will add the key
* to the map.
*@param token Description of the Parameter
*/
public void processToken(String token)
{
if (tokenMap.get(token))
{
// add one to counter
counter++;
}
else
{
token put(token, tokenMap);
I think my problem understanding what to do is here I don't
understand what the key and value are. Is the value the
token that is read in? Is the key where it is in the map?
}
}

Oops I for got to tell you which might be helpful that i have variable in the class
private Counter counter;
private PropertiesManager propManager;
private Map tokenMap;
thanks
Val

Ok Valerie,

Your questions are hard to understand for someone who has not read the specification
you are working from. And I am sure that the instructor intends that part of the assignment
be about helping you gain experience with interpreting specifications.

In general, a map stores key/value pairs.
key can be any type.
value can be any type.
For any specific value of key, there must be no more than one value associated with it.

So a reasonable key might be "full name of someone in my close family" - Arthur Jame Smith
The corresponding value might be "Street address of that person". 122 Main St, Chico, CA.
Both of these might be held as a String type.

Note that the "Street address" cannot be a key, because it is very common for
several family members to live at the same address.

I wonder if you could take a step back, and read up more about types, object, values,
as you work though this assignment. Use whichever Java (or OOP) book you have to hand.

The word "token" might mean anything in this context - a subway token, a magic token
(like a cookie), a compiler token (a lexeme).

You are very close to grasping this whole thing, just need to read up a bit more, play around
with the code a bit more, read the API a bit more, try some things a bit more, and then
formulate your questions.

Cheers!

Peter