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why Collections.sort() is there only for List implementation classes?

 
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Can anybody please tell me as why Collections.sort is there only for List implementation classes??

Thanks in advance.
 
author and iconoclast
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Because Lists have a concept of element order, while Sets and Maps do not. You can't ask a Set for its third element -- there's no "get(int)" in the Set interface. Without the idea of element order, you obviously can't sort!
 
RaviNada Kiran
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Great explanation
 
Sheriff
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TreeSet / TreeMap and LinkedHashSet / LinkedHashMap also have a notion of order, but that order is fixed; the entire internal structure is built for the one specific order. If the order would need to change, so would the internal structure, and you can just as well create a new object.
 
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