Java TreeSet Example

Java TreeSet class is a NavigableSet implementation that is based on TreeMap. The elements are either ordered by a Comparator or simply by their natural ordering. In terms of complexity, this implementation provides log(n) time cost for all basic operations like add, remove, contains.

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What is important to know about TreeSet in Java

  • TreeSet implements the SortedSet interface which means that duplicate values are not allowed.
  • Heterogeneous objects cannot be inserted in TreeSet as it does not allow. It will throw classCastException at Runtime.
  • TreeSet class does not preserve the insertion order of elements but the elements are sorted by their keys.
  • Elements in TreeSet are stored in an ascending and sorted order.

Limitations of TreeSet in Java

  • Value must be either Comparable or a Comparator needs to be provided in the constructor




Simple illustration of TreeSet

This diagram shows the inheritance diagram

Inheritance diagram

Constructors in TreeSet

  1. TreeSet(): constructs a new, empty tree set, sorted according to the natural ordering of its elements
  2. TreeSet(Collection<? extends E> c): constructs a new tree set that contains the elements in the specified collection and it is sorted according to the natural ordering of its elements.
  3. TreeSet(Comparator<? super E> comparator): constructs an empty tree set sorted according to the specified comparator.
  4. TreeSet(SortedSet<E> s):  constructs a new tree set exactly the same as the specified set, including the order of the elements.

Methods in TreeSet

  1. void add(Object o): adds the specified element according to some sorting order in TreeSet. Duplicates won’t be added.
  2. void clear(): removes all the elements from the tree set.
  3. boolean contains(Object o): returns true if the given element is present in the tree set, false otherwise.
  4. Object first(): returns the first element in the tree set.
  5. Object last(): returns the last element in the tree set.
  6. boolean isEmpty(): returns true if the tree set contains no elements, returns false otherwise.
  7. Object clone(): returns a shallow copy of the tree set.
  8. int size(): returns the number of elements in the tree set.
  9. Iterator iterator(): returns an iterator for iterating through the elements of the tree set.
  10. Comparator comparator(): returns Comparator used to sort elements in TreeSet.

For documentation for all the methods, you can visit the Oracle official documentation page.

Adding elements in a TreeSet using add()

Syntax: treeSet.add(Object o)

import java.io.*; 
import java.util.TreeSet; 
  
public class TreeSetExample { 
    public static void main(String args[]) 
    { 
        TreeSet<String> animals = new TreeSet<String>(); 
  
        animals.add("Elephant");
        animals.add("Tiger"); 
        animals.add("Lion");  

        System.out.println("TreeSet: " + animals); 
    } 
}

Output:

TreeSet: [Elephant, Tiger, Lion]

Getting the first and the last element of a TreeSet using first() and last()

Syntax:

treeSet.first()

treeSet.last()

import java.io.*; 
import java.util.TreeSet; 
  
public class TreeSetExample { 
    public static void main(String args[]) 
    { 
        TreeSet<String> animals = new TreeSet<String>(); 
  
        animals.add("Elephant");
        animals.add("Tiger"); 
        animals.add("Lion");  

        System.out.println("TreeSet: " + animals); 
        System.out.println("The first element: " + animals.first());
        System.out.println("The last element: " + animals.last());
    } 
}

Output:

TreeSet: [Elephant, Tiger, Lion]
The first element: Elephant
The last element: Lion

Checking whether an element is in a tree set or not using contains()

Syntax: treeSet.contains(Object element)

import java.io.*; 
import java.util.TreeSet; 
  
public class TreeSetExample { 
    public static void main(String args[]) 
    { 
        TreeSet<String> animals = new TreeSet<String>(); 
  
        animals.add("Elephant");
        animals.add("Tiger"); 
        animals.add("Lion");  

        System.out.println("TreeSet: " + animals);         
        System.out.println("Is 'Cat' in the tree set?" + animals.contains("Cat"));
        System.out.println("Is 'Lion' in the tree set?" + animals.contains("Lion"));
    } 
}

Output:

TreeSet: [Elephant, Tiger, Lion]
Is 'Cat' in the tree set? false
Is 'Lion' in the tree set? true

Removing an element from a tree set using remove()

Syntax: treeSet.remove(Object o)

import java.io.*; 
import java.util.TreeSet; 
  
public class TreeSetExample { 
    public static void main(String args[]) 
    { 
        TreeSet<String> animals = new TreeSet<String>(); 
  
        animals.add("Elephant");
        animals.add("Tiger"); 
        animals.add("Lion");  

        System.out.println("TreeSet: " + animals);
        animals.remove("Lion"); 
        animals.remove("Elephant"); 
        System.out.println("TreeSet: " + animals);
    } 
}

Output:

TreeSet: [Elephant, Tiger, Lion]
TreeSet: [Tiger]

Getting the number of elements in a tree set using size()

Syntax: treeSet.size()

import java.util.*; 
import java.util.TreeSet; 
  
public class TreeSetExample { 
    public static void main(String args[]) 
    { 
        TreeSet<String> animals = new TreeSet<String>(); 

        animals.add("Elephant"); 
        animals.add("Tiger"); 
        animals.add("Lion"); 
  
        System.out.println("TreeSet: " + animals); 

        System.out.println("The size of the tree set is: " + animals.size()); 
    } 
}

Output:

TreeSet: [Elephant, Tiger, Lion]
The size of the tree set is: 3

Checking whether a tree set is empty using isEmpty()

Syntax: treeSet.isEmpty()

import java.util.*; 
import java.util.TreeSet; 
  
public class TreeSetExample { 
    public static void main(String args[]) 
    { 
        TreeSet<String> animals = new TreeSet<String>(); 
  
        animals.add("Elephant"); 
        animals.add("Tiger"); 
        animals.add("Lion"); 
        
        System.out.println("TreeSet: " + animals); 
  
        System.out.println("Empty: " + animals.isEmpty()); 
  
        animals.clear(); 
  
        System.out.println("Empty: " + animals.isEmpty()); 
    } 
}

Output:

TreeSet: [Elephant, Tiger, Lion]
Empty: false
Empty: true

Iterating through a tree set using Iterator()

Syntax:

Iterator iterator = ts.iterator();
while (iterator.hasNext())
    System.out.print(iterator.next());
import java.util.Iterator; 
import java.util.TreeSet; 
  
public class TreeSetExample { 
    public static void main(String[] args) 
    { 
        TreeSet<String> 
            animals = new TreeSet<String>(); 
        animals.add("Elephant"); 
        animals.add("Tiger"); 
        animals.add("Lion"); 
  
        Iterator<String> iterator = animals.iterator(); 
  
        System.out.println("TreeSet: "); 
        System.out.println();
        while (iterator.hasNext()) 
            System.out.print(iterator.next() 
                             + "\n"); 
    } 
}

Output:

TreeSet: 
Elephant
Tiger
Lion

Iterating through a tree set using enhanced for loop

Syntax:

for (String animal : animals)
    System.out.print(animal);
}
import java.util.Iterator; 
import java.util.TreeSet; 
  
public class TreeSetExample { 
    public static void main(String[] args) 
    { 
        TreeSet<String> 
            animals = new TreeSet<String>(); 
        animals.add("Elephant"); 
        animals.add("Tiger"); 
        animals.add("Lion"); 
  
        System.out.println("TreeSet: "); 
        System.out.println();
        for (String animal : animals) 
            System.out.print(animal + "\n"); 
    } 
}

Output:

TreeSet:
Elephant
Tiger
Lion

 

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