Collections Framework

Introduction to the collections framework

Every programming language has its own collections framework. For brevity, in this lesson, we’ll use two programming languages: Java and C++. However, the core ideas are the same and have been widely implemented in every language.

It’s an enormous responsibility to organize data structures and arrange the necessary algorithms to do every kind of operation possible to make an application run successfully. If we get busy in low-level plumbing to organize the data structures using the necessary algorithm from scratch, we can’t concentrate on the other vital parts of our programs. A collections framework helps us eliminate that heavy load of low-level plumbing, which is why every popular high-level programming language has its own collections framework.

As far as Java is concerned, a collections framework, as a unified structure, consists of three core parts: interfaces, implementations, and algorithms.