java multi mapping arraylist

Question

Is it possible to map key to Multi Dimensional Array List. Some thing like following example..

Map<K,V>

Where K is key for list of alphabet and V is a multi dimensional array list or normal array list that stores list of word. Some thing like a application that reads a dictionary file. I want to see an example. Example can be anything related to Map and Multi Dimensional Array-list. Or is there any other efficient way to implement collection? I have never used such implementations so if there is already a thread related to mine QA please post the link.

Answer 1

You can always do Map<String, <List<String>>. e.g.

Map<String, List<String>> multimap = new HashMap<String, List<String>>();
String key = "asdf";
List<String> values = Arrays.asList("foo", "bar");
multimap.put(key, values);

You can also use the Multimap<String, String> interface in Google Guava - might be a better fit for your needs. It simplifies the coding somewhat -

Multimap<String, String> multimap = new ArrayListMultimap<String, String>();
String key = "asdf";
multimap.put(key, "foo");
multimap.put(key, "bar");