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+++ date = "2019-07-17" title = "Collections in programming languages" slug = "collections-in-programming-languages" tags = [] categories = [] +++
Collections are a very fundamental and interesting feature in programming. Putting together "many of the same" is important in real world applications such as a Hangman game, as a familiar example.
You need to have an ordered collection of letters and blanks that form the word to be guessed, as well as another collection of letters that have been already guessed.
Time for the nitty-gritty now.
Note: The following post will be using Java/Kotlin's (JVM's?) collections since they seem to have the most types of collections among the programming languages I am proficient in.
For simplicity, I'll be using the Java SE 7 API reference as the baseline for all the explanations here. The discussion itself will strive to remain language-agnostic so please do not be discouraged away if you are not a JVM developer.
Sets
A Set, in mathematical terms, is a collection of distinct objects, and is considered an object in its own right.
Let's dive into this.
When we say distinct objects, it simply means that duplication is forbidden. For any two elements e1 and e2, e1 == e2 can never be true in a valid set.
In most languages, sets are also guaranteed to be ordered, i.e., the elements shall remain in the order you inserted them initially.
So that was sets. Simple enough right?