How to Print treemap in reverse order

Question

In my assignment we are read from a file the text:

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

then count the times each has occured. I've been able to print this map unsorted, then I was able to make a TreeMap and print it in natural order (which is shown below). I don't know how to print in reverse order. I know a way to use a comparator, but I'm a little rusty so I've done what I can. Furthermore, I don't know how to set the comparator up to sort the Treemap into reverse order.

Here's my method to print Unsorted and Naturally sorted:

private static void sortPrintFrequencies(Map<String,Integer> vocabulary, PrintStream                                                  output {
Iterator iterator = vocabulary.keySet().iterator();
System.out.println("Unsorted");

while (iterator.hasNext()) {
 String key = iterator.next().toString();
 String value = vocabulary.get(key).toString();
 String times = "times.";
 String appears = "appears";

System.out.printf("%35s", key + "    " + appears + "    " + value + " "+ times);
System.out.println();
    }
System.out.println("========================================");
System.out.println("SORTED NATURALLY BY KEY");
TreeMap newVocabulary = new TreeMap(vocabulary);
Iterator iterator2 = newVocabulary.keySet().iterator();
while (iterator2.hasNext()) {
  String key = iterator2.next().toString();
  String value = newVocabulary.get(key).toString();
  String times = "times.";
  String appears = "appears";

    System.out.printf("%35s", key + "    " + appears + "    " + value + " "+ times);
    System.out.println();
}
  TreeMap revVocabulary = new TreeMap(new RevCmpKey());

  System.out.println("========================================");

}

Here's my comparator:

import java.util.*;
public class RevCmpKey implements Comparator<String> {
public int compare(String e1, String e2) {
    //compareTo in String classs
    if(e1.compareTo(e2) <1)return -1;
    if(e1.compareTo(e2) >1)return 1;
    return 0;
}
}

Answer 1

What about copying your Map into a new one naturally reverse ordered?

new TreeMap<String,Integer>(Collections.reverseOrder())

Answer 2

Short Answer:

Use descendingKeySet or descendingMap.

Long Answer:

Solution 1:

As Oliver correctly mentioned, you can copy the map into a new TreeMap to reach your goal.

However, when using descendingKeySet, you won't need to create a new TreeMap:

treeMap.descendingKeySet()

Here's an example:

private static void printReverseTreeMap(TreeMap<String,Integer> treeMap){
    for(String key : treeMap.descendingKeySet()){
        System.out.println("value of " + key + " is " + treeMap.get(key));
    }
}

Solution 2:

You can also create a new Map in reverse order using descendingMap as well as Collections.reverseOrder():

NavigableMap<String, Integer> reveresedTreeMap = treeMap.descendingMap();

Note that descendingMap returns NavigableMap.