How to create a static Map of String -> Array

Question

I need to create a static Map which maps a given String to an array of int's.

In other words, I'd like to define something like:

"fred" -> {1,2,5,8}
"dave" -> {5,6,8,10,11}
"bart" -> {7,22,10010}
... etc

Is there an easy way to do this in Java?

And if possible, I'd like to use static constants for both the String and the int values.

EDIT: To clarify what I meant by static constants for the values, and to give what I see to be the correct code, here is my first stab at the solution:

public final static String FRED_TEXT = "fred";
public final static String DAVE_TEXT = "dave";

public final static int ONE = 1;
public final static int TWO = 2;
public final static int THREE = 3;
public final static int FOUR = 4;

public final static HashMap<String, int[]> myMap = new HashMap<String, int[]>();
static {
    myMap.put(FRED_TEXT, new int[] {ONE, TWO, FOUR});
    myMap.put(DAVE_TEXT, new int[] {TWO, THREE});
}

Note, these names are not what I'd actually be using. This is just a contrived example.

Answer 1

You need to declare and initialize your static map separately.

Here is the declaration piece:

private static final Map<String,int[]> MyMap;

Here is the initialization piece:

static {
    Map<String,int[]> tmpMap = new HashMap<String,int[]>();
    tmpMap.put("fred", new int[] {1,2,5,8});
    tmpMap.put("dave", new int[] {5,6,8,10,11});
    tmpMap.put("bart", new int[] {7,22,10010});
    MyMap = Collections.unmodifiableMap(tmpMap);
}

Unfortunately, arrays are always writable in Java. You wouldn't be able to assign MyMap, but you would be able to add or remove values from other parts of your program that accesses the map.