Java MAP assistance

Question

First off, I've only recently started to use Java, so what might seem obvious to others may not appear so to me.

I'm trying to implement a Quiz application and one of the stipulations is that I read the questions from an external file and store the questions in a MAP structure.

I've looked into this and it appears that a MAP stores a key and a value...

Am I right in thinking that I can store an idetifier as the key and then the rest of the information as the value, even though the rest of it consists of 4 elements of two differing data types (2 ints, a string and an array of strings)?

If my assumtion is correct, how would I implement that, as any documentation I have found resembles the following:

HashMap<Integer, String> questionMap = new HashMap<Integer, String>();

Any assistance or nudges in the right direction are greatly appreciated.

The Question class currently consists of (I've remover the getters and setters to save space on here:

public class Question { public int identifier; public String type; public String question; public String[] options; public int answer; }

Dustin Martin · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-25 13:30:32Z

2

First create a class to hold your question information, then use it for the values in your Map, e.g.:

HashMap<Integer, Question> questionMap = new HashMap<Integer, Question>();

answered Apr 25, 2017 at 13:30

Dustin Martin

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1 Comment

lucasvw Over a year ago

You haven't defined what Question is.

OneCricketeer · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-25 13:31:46Z

the rest of it consists of 4 elements of two differing data types (2 ints, a string and an array of strings)?

This sounds like an Object that you'd want to write your own class for

public class Data { int id: // optional int a, b; String c; String[] d; }

Then your Map would be of the type <Integer, Data>, and I would suggest a TreeMap if you want ordered questions

user6073886 · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-25 13:34:15Z

Am I right in thinking that I can store an idetifier as the key and then the rest of the information as the value, even though the rest of it consists of 4 elements of two differing data types (2 ints, a string and an array of strings)?

No, both key and value have to be a of a single data type. What you usually would do in that case is create your own data structure that encapsules your data:

public class Question { private int id; private int score; private String question; // Constructor, Getters & Setters //.... }

Then you can use that dataType as a Value

Map<Integer, Question> questionMap = new HashMap<Integer, Quesiton>();

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