Add Key and Value into an Priority Queue and Sort by Key in Java

Question

I am trying to take in a List of strings and add them into a Priority Queue with Key and Value. The Key being the word and the value being the string value of the word. Then I need to sort the queue with the highest string value first. The priority queue is not letting me add 2 values.

public static List<String> pQSortStrings(List<String> strings) {
    PriorityQueue<String, Integer> q = new PriorityQueue<>();

    for (int x = 0; x < strings.size(); x++) {
        q.add(strings.get(x),calculateStringValue(strings.get(x)));
    }
    return strings;
}

Answer 1

Problem

PriorityQueue can store a single object in it's each node. So what you are trying to do can not be done as it is.

But you can compose both objects in a single class and then use the PriorityQueue.

You would either need to supply a Comparator or rely on natural ordering by implementing Comparable interface.

---

Solution

• Create a class which has String and int as it's members.

  public class Entry {
      private String key;
      private int value;
  
      // Constructors, getters etc.
  }
  

• Implement Comparable interface and delegate comparison to String.

  public class Entry implements Comparable<Entry> {
      private String key;
      private int value;
  
      public Entry(String key, int value) {
          this.key = key;
          this.value = value;
      }
  
      // getters
  
      @Override
      public int compareTo(Entry other) {
          return this.getKey().compareTo(other.getKey());
      }
  }
  

• Build the PriorityQueue using this class.

  PriorityQueue<Entry> q = new PriorityQueue<>();
  

• Add elements as following.

  q.add(new Entry(strings.get(x), calculateStringValue(strings.get(x))));
  

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Using Java-8

PriorityQueue<Map.Entry<String, Integer>> queue = new PriorityQueue<>(Map.Entry.comparingByValue(Comparator.reverseOrder()));

to add a new Entry

queue.offer(new AbstractMap.SimpleEntry<>("A", 10));

Answer 3

Solution

public static List<String> pQSortStrings(List<String> strings) {    
    Queue<String> pq = new PriorityQueue<>((a, b) -> 
        calculateStringValue(b) - calculateStringValue(a));
    for (String str : strings) {
         pq.add(str);
    }
    return strings;
}

Explanation

I believe that the cleanest way to do this is to store Strings in your pq and use a small custom Comparator. In this case, we want to use calculateStringValue and the pq should return highest String values first. Therefore, make a pq of entries and use the following Comparator:

1   Queue<String> pq = new PriorityQueue<>(new Comparator<String>() {
2       @Override
3       public int compare(String a, String b) {
4           return calculateStringValue(b) - calculateStringValue(a);
5       }
6   });
7   for (String str : strings) {
8       pq.add(str);
9   }
10  return strings;

Simpler syntax for the Comparator, replacing lines 1 - 6, is:

Queue<String> pq = new PriorityQueue<>((a, b) -> 
    calculateStringValue(b) - calculateStringValue(a));

If you wanted to return smallest String values first, you could just switch the order around for a and b in the Comparator:

...new PriorityQueue<>((a, b) -> calculateStringValue(a) - calculateStringValue(b));

In general, the pattern a - b sorts by smallest first, and b - a sorts by largest values first.