I want to create multiple key/value arrays in Java that will sit in a master array. I then want to be able to loop through the master array and grab the key/value of each array.
I want the array to be in a similar style to this XML:
<snippets>
<snippet1>
<name>Name</name>
<desc>Desc</desc>
</snippet1>
<snippet2>
<name>Name</name>
<desc>Desc</desc>
</snippet2>
</snippets>
or is there a way I can do this without using arrays?
Probably a good case for using classes :) This should get you started (and is pretty unsophisticated):
class Snippets {
private List<Snippet> snippets;
List<Snippet> getSnippets() { ... };
...
}
class Snippet {
private String name;
private String desc;
...
}
You can use Google Collection's Multimap data structure. More specifically to get duplicate key/value pairs you can use ListMultiMap.
Also take a look at this similar question.
If you do not need duplicate key/value pairs, then just use standard java HashMap implementation of the Map interface.
If you REALLY want to use arrays, here's an example:
String[][] snippets = new String[][] {
new String[] { "Name" , "Desc" },
new String[] { "Name2" , "Desc2" },
};
for(String[] pair: snippets) {
String key = pair[0];
String val = pair[1];
}
I would use (Hash)Maps and (Array)Lists.
You can store everything in a Object like this:
List<Map<String,String>> yourList = new ArrayList<Map<String,String>>();
Map<String,String> map1 = new HashMap<String,String>();
map1.put("key1", "value1");
map1.put("key2", "value2");
yourList.add(map1);
This is how you loop through it:
for (Map<String,String> map: yourList)
for (Entry<String, String> entry: map.entrySet())
System.out.println(entry.getKey()+": "+entry.getValue());
