Set in Java | Set Methods, Example

A set in Java is an unordered collection of unique elements or objects. In other words, a set is a collection of elements that are not stored in a particular order.

Elements are simply added to the set without any control over where they go. For example, in many applications, we do not need to care about the order of elements in a collection.

Consider the below figure where a set of books by topics is not arranged. A collection of elements is not stored in a particular order into a set. Such a collection of elements without order is called set in Java.

Realtime example of set in Java
We can add elements in a set and iterate over all elements in a set. It will grow dynamically when elements are stored in it. We can also check whether a particular element is present in the set.

A set will not allow duplicate elements. That means an element can exist only once in the set. If we try to add the same element that is already present in the set, then it is not stored in the set. That’s why each element in a set is unique.

Set in Java can be used to remove duplicate elements from the collection.

Set holds a single reference to an object. It does not provide two references to the same object, two references to null, or references to two objects a and b such that a.equals(b).

Set Interface in Java


Set is an interface that was introduced in Java 1.2 version. It is a generic interface that is declared as:

interface Set<E>

Here, E defines the type of elements that the set will hold.

Java Set interface does not provide any additional methods of its own. It uses methods defined by the collection interface but places additional restrictions on those methods.

For example, when set uses add() or addAll() methods defined by the collection interface, it does not add an element to the set if the set already contains that element.

Java Set interface does not provide any get() method like List to retrieve elements. Therefore, the only way to take out elements from the set is to do using Iterator() method. But this method does not return elements from the set in any particular order.


Using the Iterator, we can traverse only in the forward direction from the first to last element. We cannot traverse over elements in the backward direction using iterator method.

Hierarchy of Set Interface in Java


Java Set interface extends java.util.collection interface. The java.util.SortedSet interface extends the Set interface to provide the sorted set of elements.

Three classes such as HashSet, LinkedHashSet, and TreeSet implement set interface.

ConcurrentSkipListSet and EnumSet classes also implements set interface. The hierarchy diagram of the Set interface in Java is shown in below figure.

Hierarchy of set in Java

Features of Java Set


1. Set is an unordered collection of elements. That means the order is not maintained while storing elements. While retrieving we may not get the same order as that we put elements.

2. It is used to store a collection of elements without duplicate. That means it contains only unique elements.

3. Java Set uses map based structure for its implementation.

4. It can be iterated by using Iterator but cannot be iterated by using ListIterator.

5. Most of the set implementations allow adding only one null element. Tree set does not allow to add null element.

6. Set is not an indexed-based structure like a list in Java. Therefore, we cannot access elements by their index position.

8. It does not provide any get method like a list.

Java Set Implementation


Java collections framework provides three general-purpose Set implementations: HashSet, TreeSet, and LinkedHashSet.

HashSet is a concrete class that implements set interface. It uses a hash table mechanism to store its elements. It is the best-performing implementation.

TreeSet is a concrete class that implements SortedSet interface (a subinterface of set). It uses a binary search tree mechanism to store its elements. It orders its elements based on their values. It is considerably slower than HashSet.


LinkedHashSet is a concrete class that extends HashSet class. It stores its elements using hash table mechanism with a linked list implementation.

It orders its elements based on the order in which they were inserted into the set. That is, elements in the HashSet are not ordered but elements in the LinkedHashSet can be retrieved in the order in which they were inserted into the set.

This is the brief idea of set implementation classes. We will learn more detail about HashSet, TreeSet, and LinkedHashSet classes in further tutorials.

Set Methods in Java


A set interface has the following various useful methods such as add, remove, clear, size, etc to enhance the usage of a set interface in the collections framework. They are listed in the table:

MethodDescription
boolean add(Object o)It is used to add the specified element in this set.
boolean addAll(Collection c)This method adds all the elements in the given collection.
int size()It is used to get the number of elements in the set.
boolean isEmpty()This method checks that the set is empty or not.
void clear()It is used to remove all the elements from the set.
boolean contains(Object o)This method returns true if this set contains the given element.
boolean containsAll(Collection c)This method returns true if this set contains all the elements of the given collection.
boolean remove(Object o)It is used to remove the specified element from this set.
boolean removeAll(Collection c)It removes all the elements in the given collection from the set.
Iterator iterate()It returns an Iterator over the elements in this set.
boolean equals(Object o)It is used to compare the given element for equility in this set.
int hashCode()It is used to get the hashCode value for this set.

Ways to create a Generic Set object in Java


We can create a generic Set object by using one of its three concrete classes: HashSet, LinkedHashSet, and TreeSet. The basic syntax to create set objects is as follows:

Set<T> set = new HashSet<T>(); where T is type of generic.
Set<T> set = new LinkedHashSet<T>();
Set<T> set = new TreeSet<T>();

For example:
   Set<Integer> set = new HashSet<Integer>(); // Creates an empty set of Integer objects.
   Set<String> set2 = new LinkedHashSet<String>(); // Creates an empty set of String objects.

Set Example Programs based on basic Operations


1. Adding Elements to Set:

The add() method returns true if set does not contain the specified element. If set already contains the specified element then it will return false. Let’s take an example program based on it.

Program code 1:

package setProgram; 
import java.util.HashSet; 
import java.util.LinkedHashSet; 
import java.util.Set; 
public class SetExample1 
{ 
public static void main(String[] args) 
{ 
// Create a generic set object of type String. 
   Set<String> s = new HashSet<String>(); 
// Find out the size of set using set() method.
   int size = s.size(); 
   System.out.println("Size before adding elements: " +size); 

// Adding elements to set. 
   s.add("Orange"); // s.size()is 1.
   s.add("Red"); // s.size() is 2.
   s.add("Blue"); // s.size() is 3.
   s.add("Yellow"); // s.size() is 4.
   s.add("Green"); // Now s.size() is 5.

// Add duplicate elements in the set. These elements will be ignored by set due to not taking duplicate elements. 
   s.add("Red"); // s.size() is still 5 because we cannot add duplicate element.
   s.add("Blue"); // s.size() is still 5 because we cannot add duplicate element.
   System.out.println("Unordered Set Elements"); 
   System.out.println(s); 

// Check 'Black' element is present in the above set or not. 
   if(s.equals("Black"))
   { 
     System.out.println("Black element is not present in set."); 
   } 
   else 
   { 
     s.add("Black"); 
     System.out.println("Black is added successfully."); 
     System.out.println("Set elements after adding black element"); 
     System.out.println(s); 
   } 
// Create another set object to add collection of elements to the above set. 
   Set<String> s2 = new LinkedHashSet<String>(); 
    s2.add("White"); 
    s2.add("Brown"); 
    s2.add("Red"); // Duplicate element. 

// Call addAll() method to add all the elements of the given collection. 
   s.addAll(s2); 
   System.out.println("Set elements after adding elements from given collection"); 
   System.out.println(s); 
 } 
}
Output: 
       Size before adding elements: 0 
       Unordered Set Elements 
       [Red, Blue, Yellow, Orange, Green] 
       Black is added successfully. 
       Set elements after adding black element 
       [Red, Blue, Yellow, Black, Orange, Green] 
       Set elements after adding elements from given collection 
       [Red, Brown, White, Blue, Yellow, Black, Orange, Green]

In this example program, you can observe in the output, set does not maintain the order of elements while storing. It gives an unordered collection of elements in HashSet.

To impose an order on them, we need to use the LinkedHashSet class, which we will learn in the next section.

When we add duplicate elements in the set, it rejected duplicate elements because the set does not allow duplicate elements (keep in mind these points).


2. Removing an Element from Set:

Let’s take an example program where we will remove an element from set. We will also check the set is empty or not before adding elements in the list.

Program code 2:

package setProgram; 
import java.util.HashSet; 
import java.util.Set; 
public class SetExample2 
{ 
public static void main(String[] args) 
{ 
// Create a generic set object of type String. 
   Set<String> s = new HashSet<String>(); 

// Check set is empty or not. 
   boolean check = s.isEmpty(); // Return type of this method is an boolean. 
   System.out.println("Is Set empty: " +check); 

// Adding elements to set. 
   s.add("Orange"); 
   s.add("Red"); 
   s.add("Blue"); 
   s.add("Yellow"); 
   s.add("Green"); 
 if(s.isEmpty())
 { 
  System.out.println("Set is empty."); 
  } 
 else 
 { 
   System.out.println("Set is not empty."); 
   System.out.println("Elements in the Set"); 
   System.out.println(s); 
  } 
// Remove an element from set. 
   s.remove("Blue"); 
   System.out.println("Set elements after removing"); 
   System.out.println(s); 

// Get the total number of set elements. 
   int size = s.size(); 
   System.out.println("Total number of elements: " +size); 
  } 
}
Output: 
       Is Set empty: true 
       Set is not empty. 
       Elements in the Set 
       [Red, Blue, Yellow, Orange, Green] 
       Set elements after removing 
       [Red, Yellow, Orange, Green] 
       Total number of elements: 4

3. Searching an Element in Set:

Let’s take an example program in which we will search an element in set. The contains() method checks whether an element is present in the set. If it is present in the set, the method returns true, otherwise false.

Program code 3:

package setProgram; 
import java.util.HashSet; 
import java.util.Set; 
public class SetExample3 { 
public static void main(String[] args) 
{ 
 Set<Character> s = new HashSet<Character>(); 
  s.add('D'); 
  s.add('F'); 
  s.add('H'); 
  s.add('P'); 
  s.add('K'); 
  s.add(null); 
  s.add(null); // Duplicate null element. Therefore, set allow only one null element. 
 
  System.out.println("Unordered Set Elements"); 
  System.out.println(s); 

// Call contains() method to search an element. 
   boolean search = s.contains('A'); // Returns false because A is not present in the set. 

   System.out.println("Is Element A present in set: " +search); 
   if(s.contains('K'))
   { 
     System.out.println("K is present in set."); 
   }
   else { 
     System.out.println("K is not present in set."); 
   } 
   int hashcode = s.hashCode(); 
   System.out.println("HashCode value: " +hashcode); 
 } 
}
Output: 
       Unordered Set Elements 
       [P, null, D, F, H, K] 
       Is Element A present in set: false 
       K is present in set. 
       HashCode value: 365

When to use Set?


1. If you want to represent a group of individual elements as a single entity where duplicates are not allowed and insertion order is not preserved then we should go for the Set.

2. If your requirement is to get unique elements, set is the best choice for this.

3. If you want to remove duplicate elements without maintaining the insertion order from the non-set collection, you should go for set.

Let’s take a simple example program where we will remove duplicate elements from the ArrayList. Look at the source code.

Program code 4:

package setProgram; 
import java.util.ArrayList; 
import java.util.HashSet; 
import java.util.List; 
import java.util.Set; 
public class SetExample4 { 
public static void main(String[] args) 
{ 
// Create a generic list object of type Integer. 
   List<Integer> list = new ArrayList<Integer>(); 
   int size = list.size(); 
   System.out.println("Size before adding elements: " +size); 

// Adding elements to list object.  
   list.add(5); 
   list.add(10); 
   list.add(5); 
   list.add(15); 
   list.add(20); 
   list.add(10); 
   list.add(20); 
   list.add(30); 
 
   System.out.println("Original order of List Elements"); 
   System.out.println(list); 
 
// Creating a hash set object of type Integer.
   Set<Integer> s = new HashSet<Integer>(list); 
   System.out.println("Unodered List Elements after removing duplicates."); 
   System.out.println(s); 
 } 
}
Output: 
       Size before adding elements: 0 
       Original order of List Elements 
       [5, 10, 5, 15, 20, 10, 20, 30] 
       Unodered List Elements after removing duplicates
       [20, 5, 10, 30, 15]

Q. Assume that set1 is a set that contains string elements such as Banana, Orange, and Apple. set2 is another set that contains string elements such as Banana, Orange, and Mango.

Answer the following questions:

a) What are the elements of set1 and set2 after executing set1.addAll(set2)?

b) What are the elements of set1 and set2 after executing set1.add(set2)?

c) What are the elements of set1 and set2 after executing set1.removeAll(set2)?

d) What are the elements of set1 and set2 after executing set1.remove(set2)?

e) What are elements of set1 and set2 after executing set1.retainAll(set2)?

f) What is the size of set1 after executing set1.clear()?

g) What is the size of set2 after executing set2.add(“Mango”)?


Ans a: set1: [Apple, Mango, Orange, Banana], set2: [Mango, Orange, Banana]

Ans b: Compilation error: The method add(String) in the type Set<String> is not applicable for the arguments (Set<String>)

Ans c: set1: [Apple], set2: [Mango, Orange, Banana]

Ans d: set1: [Apple, Orange, Banana], set2: [Mango, Orange, Banana]

Ans e: set1: [Orange, Banana], set2: [Mango, Orange, Banana]

Ans f: After executing set1.clear(), size of set1 is 0.

Ans g: After executing set2.add(“Mango”), the size of set2 is 3 because duplicate elements cannot be added to the set.


Key Points of Set Interface

Here are some key points about set interface in Java that are as:

  • Set is an interface in the java.util package that stores a collection of unique elements with no duplicates allowed.
  • HashSet, TreeSet, and LinkedHashSet are the three types of set in Java, each with its unique features and implementations.
  • Set interface provides methods such as add(), remove(), contains(), size(), and clear() for performing various operations on the set collections.
  • It also provides addAll(), removeAll(), and retainAll() for performing set operations on multiple sets.
  • Set interface does not provide methods for accessing elements by their index or position.
  • Set interface is not thread-safe, and the implementation classes may require synchronization for concurrent access.
  • We usually use set interface for solving problems when we need to store a collection of unique elements, finding common elements, removing duplicates, and performing set operations.

In this tutorial, you have learned about set interface in Java with some important example programs. Hope that you will have understood the basic concepts of set interface and practiced all example programs. In the next, we will understand different ways to iterate set in Java.
Thanks for reading!!!

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