What is the difference between the HashMap and Map

Question

What is the difference between the following maps I create (in another question, people answered using them seemingly interchangeably and I'm wondering if/how they are different):

HashMap<String, Object> map = new HashMap<String, Object>();
Map<String, Object> map = new HashMap<String, Object>();

Answer 1

Map is the static type of map, while HashMap is the dynamic type of map. This means that the compiler will treat your map object as being one of type Map, even though at runtime, it may point to any subtype of it.

This practice of programming against interfaces instead of implementations has the added benefit of remaining flexible: You can for instance replace the dynamic type of map at runtime, as long as it is a subtype of Map (e.g. LinkedHashMap), and change the map's behavior on the fly.

A good rule of thumb is to remain as abstract as possible on the API level: If for instance a method you are programming must work on maps, then it's sufficient to declare a parameter as Map instead of the stricter (because less abstract) HashMap type. That way, the consumer of your API can be flexible about what kind of Map implementation they want to pass to your method.