Collections and Generics in Java 5

Collections in Java 5 is a fairly big topic and one of the tricky exam areas because there is lots of options and it comes down to knowing what collection you need for different scenario's. Collections is also made extra difficult in the Java 5 SCJP exam because Collections are heavily linked with Generics because one of the main motivations for adding Generics was to use Generics with collections.

Although there is some data out there on these topics it can be quite difficult finding but I persisted and tracked some good resources down. So if you want some free pdfs on collections and generics, do I have some links for you.
Collections Â? this is pretty good and goes into detail on each different kind of collection that will be covered in the Java 5 SJCP exam, e.g. lists, Maps, sets, queues. It is Nine chapters on collections

https://www.dev.java.net/files/documents/3557/16188/Collections.pdf

this is parts of a Java Generics book and it's pretty good, especially as on this topic there isn't that much data and I had to swap the words around in the google search to actually find some decent articles on the subject

Complete draft of Java Generics, waiting for final comments

https://java-generics-book.dev.java.net/files/documents/3557/21906/text-links.pdf

There has for Java 5 been a great deal of change with collections, mainly driven by the implementation of Generics in Java.

I would also like to add that Java big cheese Joshua Bloch was one of the main people behind the changes, I am a fan of Joshua, particularly his book Effective Java. Anyway check him out

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/information/bios.html#jbloch

back to collections

here is the classic sun tutorial link, I found the Sun Collections Tutorial quite useful although it did feel quite academic/clinical text book in some places but it is very through and has greater detail than you will perhaps need

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/collections/index.html

if you are studying for the Java 1.4 exam or if you are using collections in Java 1.4 or Java 2 as it was known, then these articles from the Java Ranch should help you out, they are from the Java Ranch newsletter and are quite easy to read

http://www.javaranch.com/newsletter/June2002/newsletterjune2002.jsp#collections
http://www.javaranch.com/newsletter/July2002/newsletterjuly2002.jsp#collections
http://www.javaranch.com/newsletter/Aug2002/newsletteraug2002.jsp#collections
http://www.javaranch.com/newsletter/Sept2002/newslettersept2002.jsp#collections