public interface SequencedMap<K,V> extends Map<K,V>

A Map that has a well-defined encounter order, that supports operations at both ends, and that is reversible. The encounter order of a SequencedMap is similar to that of the elements of a SequencedCollection, but the ordering applies to mappings instead of individual elements.

The bulk operations on this map, including the forEach and the replaceAll methods, operate on this map's mappings in encounter order.

The view collections provided by the keySet, values, entrySet, sequencedKeySet, sequencedValues, and sequencedEntrySet methods all reflect the encounter order of this map. Even though the return values of the keySet, values, and entrySet methods are not sequenced types, the elements in those view collections do reflect the encounter order of this map. Thus, the iterators returned by the statements

both provide the mappings of sequencedMap in that map's encounter order.

This interface provides methods to add mappings, to retrieve mappings, and to remove mappings at either end of the map's encounter order.

This interface also defines the reversed() method, which provides a reverse-ordered view of this map. In the reverse-ordered view, the concepts of first and last are inverted, as are the concepts of successor and predecessor. The first mapping of this map is the last mapping of the reverse-ordered view, and vice-versa. The successor of some mapping in this map is its predecessor in the reversed view, and vice-versa. All methods that respect the encounter order of the map operate as if the encounter order is inverted. For instance, the forEach method of the reversed view reports the mappings in order from the last mapping of this map to the first. In addition, all of the view collections of the reversed view also reflect the inverse of this map's encounter order. For example,

provides the mappings of this map in the inverse of the encounter order, that is, from the last mapping to the first mapping. The availability of the reversed method, and its impact on the ordering semantics of all applicable methods and views, allow convenient iteration, searching, copying, and streaming of this map's mappings in either forward order or reverse order.

A map's reverse-ordered view is generally not serializable, even if the original map is serializable.

The Map.Entry instances obtained by iterating the Map.entrySet() view, the sequencedEntrySet() view, and its reverse-ordered view, maintain a connection to the underlying map. This connection is guaranteed only during the iteration. It is unspecified whether the connection is maintained outside of the iteration. If the underlying map permits it, calling an Entry's setValue method will modify the value of the underlying mapping. It is, however, unspecified whether modifications to the value in the underlying mapping are visible in the Entry instance.

The methods firstEntry(), lastEntry(), pollFirstEntry(), and pollLastEntry() return Map.Entry instances that represent snapshots of mappings as of the time of the call. They do not support mutation of the underlying map via the optional setValue method.

Depending upon the implementation, the Entry instances returned by other means might or might not be connected to the underlying map. For example, consider an Entry obtained in the following manner:

It is not specified by this interface whether the setValue method of the Entry thus obtained will update a mapping in the underlying map, or whether it will throw an exception, or whether changes to the underlying map are visible in that Entry.

This interface has the same requirements on the equals and hashCode methods as defined by Map.equals and Map.hashCode. Thus, a Map and a SequencedMap will compare equals if and only if they have equal mappings, irrespective of ordering.

This class is a member of the Java Collections Framework.