Women in Technology

Article:		Design Tips for Building Tag Clouds
Subject:		Correction
Date:		2006-06-13 23:22:31
From:		dkrukovsky
Jim, Good article. It would be even better if you would know that both Java and C++ do support what you call associative arrays: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associative_array#Java Denis Krukovsky http://talkinghub.com/

Showing messages 1 through 2 of 2.

• Correction
  2006-06-15 04:39:25  KristoferHoch [View]
  
  
  Denis,
  I believe the type of Associative array that Jim is speaking of, is a be more free than the Java generic.
  
  Take the example you provided for instance. The phonebook is a
  Map Object that can only accept two arguments. Both arguments MUST be of the
  String type.
  
Map<String, String> phoneBook = new HashMap<String, String>();
phoneBook.put("Sally Smart", "555-9999");
phoneBook.put("John Doe", "555-1212");
phoneBook.put("J. Random Hacker", "555-1337");

  
  In Perl, you can do all sorts of crazy things, for instance ...
  
  
use strict;
my %phonebook =
(
'Sally Smart' =>
{
name =>
{
'last' => 'Smart',
'first' => 'Sally',
'middle initial' => '',
'salutation' => [ qw(Ms. Lady) ],
'titles' => [ qw(PhD. Esquire M.D.) ],
}
'number' => '555-9999',
},
);

  
  In this instance, I have associated Sally's full name to another associative array (really an anonymous associative array) which contains her full name and some more information.
  
  If you wanted to do the same thing in Java you would, as Jim said, you will end up writing considerably more code.
  

• Correction
  2006-06-15 04:17:53  KristoferHoch [View]
  
  
  Dkrukovsky,
  I believe the type of Associative array that Jim is speaking of, is a be more free than the Java generic.
  
  Take the example you provided for instance. That Map can only take a String and Another String.
  [snippet]
  Map<String, String> phoneBook = new HashMap<String, String>();
  phoneBook.put("J. Random Hacker", "555-1337");
  [/snippet]
  
  It cannot nest in more Maps because the phone book only accepts String objects. In Perl, you can do some crazy things like ...
  
  [snippet]
  
%phonebook =
(
'name' =>
{'J. Random Hacker',

);