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Philip Ford edited this page Sep 16, 2018 · 12 revisions

Contents

Lists

[item1, item2, ...]
  • The list items are separated by commas within brackets.
  • To create an empty list, assign empty brackets to a reference.
  • Use the << leftShift operator to append elements to a list.

Iterating Lists

Use each(), which takes a closure as input.

Maps

[key1: value1, key2: value2, ...]
  • Syntax: a comma-separate list of key/value pairs in brackets.
  • Each key is separated from its value by a colon.
  • To create an empty map, assign brackets containing only a colon, [:], to a reference.
  • There are at least 5 ways to add an item to a map, including bracket notation (e.g., map['item1'] = 'Hi!'), shown below.

Bracket Notation

You can add values to or retrieve values from a Groovy map with bracket notation, just like JavaScript objects:

// Here is an example map declaration with initial values 
def personAgeMap = [matthew: 30, mark:25, luke: 40]

// Since Groovy is just a superset of Java, we can use the put method to add an entry to a map. 
personAgeMap.put('john', 41)

// We can also use bracket notation. For example: 
personAgeMap['Tim'] = 28

// Another way is to treat the key as property of the map object. Example: 
personAgeMap.Roy = 32

// You can also use dot (.) followed by the key enclosed in quotes. Example: 
personAgeMap.'Tim' = 55

// Lastly, you can add entries coming from another map. You can push entries from one map to another, for example:
personAgeMap << [Michael:29]

Iterating Maps

Use each(), which takes a closure as input.

Arrays

Groovy reuses the list notation for arrays, but to make such literals arrays, you need to explicitly define the type of the array through coercion or type declaration.

//Define an array of strings using explicit variable type declaration
String[] arrStr = ['Ananas', 'Banana', 'Kiwi']  

assert arrStr instanceof String[]    
assert !(arrStr instanceof List)

// Alternatively, create an array of ints with the as operator
def numArr = [1, 2, 3] as int[]      

assert numArr instanceof int[]       
assert numArr.size() == 3

// You can also create multi-dimensional arrays:
def matrix3 = new Integer[3][3]  // You can define the bounds of a new array     
assert matrix3.size() == 3

Integer[][] matrix2     // Or declare an array without specifying its bounds                
matrix2 = [[1, 2], [3, 4]]
assert matrix2 instanceof Integer[][]

  • Access to elements of an array follows the same notation as for lists:

    String[] names = ['Cédric', 'Guillaume', 'Jochen', 'Paul']
assert names[0] == 'Cédric'    // Retrieve the first element of the array

names[2] = 'Blackdrag'    // Set the value of the third element of the array to a new value      
assert names[2] == 'Blackdrag'

  • Java’s array initializer notation is not supported by Groovy: the curly braces can be misinterpreted with the notation of Groovy closures.

Ranges

def range = <start>..<end>
  • Ranges allow you to create a list of sequential values. These can be used as List since Range extends java.util.List.
  • Ranges defined with the .. notation are inclusive (that is the list contains the from and to value).
  • Ranges defined with the ..< notation are half-open, they include the first value but not the last value.
  • Ranges can be used for any Java object which implements java.lang.Comparable for comparison
  • Ranges have methods next() and previous() to return the next / previous item in the range.
// an inclusive range
def range = 5..8
assert range.size() == 4
assert range.get(2) == 7
assert range[2] == 7
assert range.contains(5)
assert range.contains(8)

// lets use a half-open range
range = 5..<8
assert range.size() == 3
assert range.get(2) == 7
assert range[2] == 7
assert range.contains(5)
assert !range.contains(8)

//get the end points of the range without using indexes
range = 1..10
assert range.from == 1
assert range.to == 10

Iterating Ranges

You can iterate on a range using a classic for loop:

for (i in 1..10) {
    println "Hello ${i}"
}

Better yet, you can a range with the each() method:

(1..10).each { i ->
    println "Hello ${i}"
}

Collection Methods

collect

The method collect iterates through a collection, converting each element into a new value using the specified closure as the transformer.

Syntax

List collect(Closure closure)
Parameters

The Closure expression.

Return Value

The modified list collection.

Example

class Example {
   static void main(String[] args) {
      def lst = [1,2,3,4];
      def newlst = [];
      newlst = lst.collect {element -> return element * element}
      println(newlst);
   } 
}

When we run the above program, we will get the following result:

[1, 4, 9, 16]

References

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