Using iterator on a TreeSet

Question

SITUATION: I have a TreeSet of custom Objects and I have also used a custom Comparator. I have created an iterator to use on this TreeSet.

TreeSet<Custom> ts=new TreeSet<Custom>();
Iterator<Custom> itr=ts.iterator();
while(itr.hasNext()){
    Custom c=itr.next();
    //Code to add a new element to the TreeSet ts
}

QUESTION: Well I want to know that if I add a new element to the TreeSet within the while loop, then will that new element get sorted immediately. In other words, if I add a new element within the while loop and it is less than the one which I am currently holding in c, then in the next iteration will I be getting the same element in c as in the last iteration?(since after sorting, the newly added element will occupy a place somewhere before the current element).

Answer 1

If you add an element during your iteration, your next iterator call will likely throw a ConcurrentModificationException. See the fail-fast behavior in TreeSet docs.

To iterate and add elements, you could copy first to another set:

TreeSet<Custom> ts = ...
TreeSet<Custom> tsWithExtra = new TreeSet(ts);

for (Custom c : ts) {
  // possibly add to tsWithExtra
}

// continue, using tsWithExtra

or create a separate collection to be merged with ts after iteration, as Colin suggests.

Answer 2

You will get a java.util.ConcurrentModificationException if you add an element into the TreeSet inside while loop.

Set<String> ts = new TreeSet<>();
ts.addAll(Arrays.asList(new String[]{"abb", "abd", "abg"}));
Iterator<String> itr = ts.iterator();
while(itr.hasNext()){
    String s = itr.next();
    System.out.println("s: " + s);
    if (s.equals("abd"))
        ts.add("abc");
}

###Output

Exception in thread "main" java.util.ConcurrentModificationException

Answer 3

public static void main(String[] args) {
    TreeSet<Integer> ts=new TreeSet<Integer>();
    ts.add(2);
    ts.add(4);
    ts.add(0);

    Iterator<Integer> itr=ts.iterator();
    while(itr.hasNext()){
        Integer c=itr.next();
        System.out.println(c);
        //Code
        ts.add(1);
    }
}


Exception in thread "main" java.util.ConcurrentModificationException

This will come to all collections like List , Map , Set Because when iterator starts it may be putting some lock on it .

if you iterate list using iterator then this exception will come. I think otherwise this loop will be infinite as you are adding element whole iterating.

Consider without iterator:

public static void main(String[] args) {
    List<Integer> list=new ArrayList<Integer>();
    list.add(2);
    list.add(4);
    list.add(0);

    for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
        System.out.println(list.get(i));
        list.add(3);
    }
    System.out.println("Size" +list.size());
}

this will be fine .

Answer 4

In order to avoid the ConcurrentModificationException you might want to check out my UpdateableTreeSet. I have even added a new test case showing how to add elements during a loop. To be more exact, you mark new elements for a later, deferred update of the set. This works quite nicely. Basically you do something like

for (MyComparableElement element : myUpdateableTreeSet) {
    if (someCondition) {
        // Add new element (deferred)
        myUpdateableTreeSet.markForUpdate(
            new MyComparableElement("foo", "bar", 1, 2)
        );
    }
}

// Perform bulk update
myUpdateableTreeSet.updateMarked();

I guess this is quite exactly what you need. :-)

Answer 5

To prevent the ConcurrentModificationException while walking. Below is my version to allow high frequency insertion into the TreeSet() and allow concurrently iterate on it. This class use a extra queue to store the inserting object when the TreeSet is being iterating.

public class UpdatableTransactionSet {
TreeSet <DepKey> transactions = new TreeSet <DepKey> ();
LinkedList <DepKey> queue = new LinkedList <DepKey> ();
boolean busy=false;
/**
 * directly call it
 * @param e
 */
void add(DepKey e) {
    boolean bb = getLock();
    if(bb) {
        transactions.add(e);
        freeLock();
    } else {
        synchronized(queue) {
            queue.add(e);
        }
    }
}
/**
 * must getLock() and freeLock() while call this getIterator function
 * @return
 */
Iterator<DepKey> getIterator() {
    return null;
}

synchronized boolean getLock() {
    if(busy) return false;
    busy = true;
    return true;
}
synchronized void freeLock() {
    synchronized(queue) {
        for(DepKey e:queue) {
            transactions.add(e);
        }
    }       
    busy = false;
}
}

Answer 6

While the question has already been answered, I think the most satisfactory answer lies in javadoc of TreeSet itself

The iterators returned by this class's iterator method are fail-fast: if the set is modified at any time after the iterator is created, in any way except through the iterator's own remove method, the iterator will throw a ConcurrentModificationException. Thus, in the face of concurrent modification, the iterator fails quickly and cleanly, rather than risking arbitrary, non-deterministic behavior at an undetermined time in the future.

Note that the fail-fast behavior of an iterator cannot be guaranteed as it is, >generally speaking, impossible to make any hard guarantees in the presence of unsynchronized concurrent modification. Fail-fast iterators throw ConcurrentModificationException on a best-effort basis. Therefore, it would be wrong to write a program that depended on this exception for its correctness: the fail-fast behavior of iterators should be used only to detect bugs.

Answer 7

To avoid the concurrent modification error that's bound to occur when you're doing the insertion, you could also create a temporary copy of the Set, iterate through the copy instead, and modify the original.