Java Hashmap: How to get key from value?

Question

If I have the value "foo", and a HashMap<String> ftw for which ftw.containsValue("foo") returns true, how can I get the corresponding key? Do I have to loop through the hashmap? What is the best way to do that?

Answer 1

For Android development targeting API < 19, Vitalii Fedorenko one-to-one relationship solution doesn't work because Objects.equals isn't implemented. Here's a simple alternative:

public <K, V> K getKeyByValue(Map<K, V> map, V value) {
    for (Map.Entry<K, V> entry : map.entrySet()) {
            if (value.equals(entry.getValue())) {
            return entry.getKey();
        }
    }
    return null;
}

Answer 2

public class NewClass1 {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
       Map<Integer, String> testMap = new HashMap<Integer, String>();
        testMap.put(10, "a");
        testMap.put(20, "b");
        testMap.put(30, "c");
        testMap.put(40, "d");
        for (Entry<Integer, String> entry : testMap.entrySet()) {
            if (entry.getValue().equals("c")) {
                System.out.println(entry.getKey());
            }
        }
    }
}

Some additional info... May be useful to you

Above method may not be good if your hashmap is really big. If your hashmap contain unique key to unique value mapping, you can maintain one more hashmap that contain mapping from Value to Key.

That is you have to maintain two hashmaps

1. Key to value

2. Value to key 

In that case you can use second hashmap to get key.

Answer 3

You can get the key using values using following code..

ArrayList valuesList = new ArrayList();
Set keySet = initalMap.keySet();
ArrayList keyList = new ArrayList(keySet);

for(int i = 0 ; i < keyList.size() ; i++ ) {
    valuesList.add(initalMap.get(keyList.get(i)));
}

Collections.sort(valuesList);
Map finalMap = new TreeMap();
for(int i = 0 ; i < valuesList.size() ; i++ ) {
    String value = (String) valuesList.get(i);

    for( int j = 0 ; j < keyList.size() ; j++ ) {
        if(initalMap.get(keyList.get(j)).equals(value)) {
            finalMap.put(keyList.get(j),value);
        }   
    }
}
System.out.println("fianl map ---------------------->  " + finalMap);

Answer 4

public static class SmartHashMap <T1 extends Object, T2 extends Object> {
    public HashMap<T1, T2> keyValue;
    public HashMap<T2, T1> valueKey;

    public SmartHashMap(){
        this.keyValue = new HashMap<T1, T2>();
        this.valueKey = new HashMap<T2, T1>();
    }

    public void add(T1 key, T2 value){
        this.keyValue.put(key, value);
        this.valueKey.put(value, key);
    }

    public T2 getValue(T1 key){
        return this.keyValue.get(key);
    }

    public T1 getKey(T2 value){
        return this.valueKey.get(value);
    }

}

Answer 5

You can use the below:

public class HashmapKeyExist {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        HashMap<String, String> hmap = new HashMap<String, String>();
        hmap.put("1", "Bala");
        hmap.put("2", "Test");

        Boolean cantain = hmap.containsValue("Bala");
        if(hmap.containsKey("2") && hmap.containsValue("Test"))
        {
            System.out.println("Yes");
        }
        if(cantain == true)
        {
            System.out.println("Yes"); 
        }

        Set setkeys = hmap.keySet();
        Iterator it = setkeys.iterator();

        while(it.hasNext())
        {
            String key = (String) it.next();
            if (hmap.get(key).equals("Bala"))
            {
                System.out.println(key);
            }
        }
    }
}

Answer 6

There is no unambiguous answer, because multiple keys can map to the same value. If you are enforcing unique-ness with your own code, the best solution is to create a class that uses two Hashmaps to track the mappings in both directions.