Java HashMap returning null values even when key is present

Question

I am working on a project in which we insert key and value pairs in a Map.

If the key is present in the Map, my code returns the value for that key.

However, the HashMap is not returning the expected values, even though the key is present.

First I read the key and value pairs from a file, then I read another file which has almost the same keys as the first file.

Then I return values for some keys, but for many of them the value is null.

Here is a snippet of my code:

Scanner scanner = new Scanner(new FileReader("a.txt"));

LinkedHashMap<String, String> map = new LinkedHashMap<String, String>();

while (scanner.hasNextLine())
{
   String[] columns = scanner.nextLine().split(";");
   map.put(columns[0], columns[1]);
}

System.out.println(map);

for (Map.Entry<String, String> entry : map.entrySet())
{ // name is the input of second file
    if (entry.getKey().equals(name)) 
    {
        num = entry.getValue();         
        fun(num);
    }
}

My input file is

abc;1

def;2

ghi;3

... and name will be abc

def

I suspect there might be some trailing or leading whitespaces. — Rohit Jain
– Rohit Jain, Commented Aug 1, 2013 at 15:27
Please include System.out.printf("@%s@\n", name) outside the loop and System.out.printf("@%s@\n", entry.getKey()) inside the loop and update the question with the output? The @s are to show whitespaces — Miserable Variable
– Miserable Variable, Commented Aug 1, 2013 at 17:13

anubhava · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-02 05:47:42Z

4

Strings that are being compared might have white space, linefeed, newline characters.

As we suspected earlier your input file train.txt has man trailing white-spaces and that is causing map lookup to fail. Besides that your Java code had many redundant block of code. I have cleaned it up. Here is your modified code:

import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
public class ExampleClass1 {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
        Scanner scanner = new Scanner(new FileReader("trainnames.txt"));
        LinkedHashMap<String, String> map = new LinkedHashMap<String, String>();
        while (scanner.hasNextLine()) {
            String[] columns = scanner.nextLine().split(";");
            map.put(columns[0].trim(), columns[1].trim());
        }
        scanner.close();
        System.out.println("******** map is: " + map);
        File file = new File("onn.csv"); // output file
        FileWriter fileWriter = new FileWriter(file);
        scanner = new Scanner(new FileReader("train.txt"));
        while (scanner.hasNextLine()) {
            String line = scanner.nextLine().trim();
            if (line.charAt(0) == '>') {
                //System.out.println("==== line: [" + line + ']');      
                String num = map.get(line);
                no(num, fileWriter);
            }
        }
        scanner.close();
        fileWriter.close();
    }

    public static void no(String num, FileWriter fileWriter) throws IOException {
        fileWriter.append(num + ',' + System.getProperty("line.separator"));
        System.out.println(num);                                        
    }
}

edited Aug 2, 2013 at 5:47

answered Aug 1, 2013 at 15:34

anubhava

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14 Comments

Rohit Jain Over a year ago

\W contains many more characters than just whitespace. And replaceAll will remove all of them, not just those at the ends.

Rohit Jain Over a year ago

You can use name.trim() to remove trailing and leading whitespaces.

anubhava Over a year ago

Yes you can definitely do that to remove white-spaces only from both ends.

anubhava Over a year ago

Show output of System.out.println(map); and System.out.println('[' + name + ']');

user2490712 Over a year ago

output of map:{1NBG=1, 1MBD=1, 1MBM=1, 1LN1=1, 1BMBM=1, 1MLLM=1, 1DMN=2, 1CYZ=2, 5CYTR=2, 1CC5 =2, 351C=2, 1GKS=2, 1MOFM1=2, 1ETPM1=2, 1ETPM2=2, 1YRNM=3, 1YRNB=3, 1OCTC1=3, 1F JLM=3, 1RES=3, 1PDNC=3, 1ZGNM1=3, 1ZGNM2=3, 1SFE_1=3, 1BZM_1=3, 1LEM=3, 1MOY=3, 1CGPM1=3, 1OPC=3, 1ETD=3, 1PUEE=3, 2NTS=3, 1DPRM1=3, 1XGSM1=3, 1FOW=3, 2LZGM=4, 1BBNM=4, 1CGO=4, 1CPQ=4, 2NMQM=4, 1MTMP=4, 1BUCM1=4, 1FMPB=4, 1BGC=5, 1CNT1=5}

|

Charlie · Accepted Answer · 2021-09-08 21:24:10Z

3

This issue can come up if the hashCode of the object changes after insertion.

If you're modifying an object that's used as a key in a hashMap, you have two options:

Replace the HashMap with an IdentityHashMap. This may have unintended consequences as two objects with the same hashCode will no longer be considered equivalent when putting/getting from the map, including exact clones.
Before updating the key in such a way the hashCode is changed, remove it from the map, update the key, then re-insert into the map.

edited Sep 8, 2021 at 21:24

answered Mar 22, 2016 at 3:14

Charlie

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2 Comments

Dylan Over a year ago

How do you handle this though?

Charlie Over a year ago

@Dylan I've added some alternatives

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