logo CodeStepByStep logo

lastNamesByAge

Language/Type: Java TreeMap collections
Related Links:

Write a method named lastNamesByAge that accepts three parameters: 1) a TreeMap where each key is a person's full name (a string) and the associated value is that person's age (an integer); 2) an integer for a minimum age; and 3) an integer for a max age. Your method should return a new map with information about people with ages between the min and max, inclusive.

In your result map, each key is an integer age, and the value for that key is a string with the last names of all people at that age, separated by "and" if there is more than one person of that age. The order of names for a given age should be in the order they occurred in the parameter map. Include only ages between the min and max inclusive, where there is at least one person of that age in the parameter map. If the map passed is empty, or if there are no people in the map between the min/max ages, return an empty map.

Some names are in the format "first last" such as "Jane Doe". But a name could have more tokens, such as "Oscar de la Hoya", or could contain just a single token, such as "Cher". For example, if a map named ages stores the following key/value pairs:

{Allison L. Smith=18, Benson Kai Lim=48, David L Shaw=20, Erik Thomas Jones=20,
 Galen Wood=15, Madonna=25, Helene Q. Martin=40, Janette Siu=18,
 Jessica K. Miller=35, Marty Douglas Stepp=35, Paul Beame=28, Sara de la Pizza=15,
 Stuart T. Reges=98, Tyler Rigs=6, Prince=20}

The call of lastNamesByAge(ages, 16, 25) should return the following map:

{18=Smith and Siu, 20=Shaw and Jones and Prince, 25=Madonna}

For the same map, the call of lastNamesByAge(ages, 20, 40) should return the following map:

{20=Shaw and Jones and Prince, 25=Young, 28=Beame, 35=Miller and Stepp, 40=Martin}

Constraints: Obey the following restrictions in your solution.

  • You will need to construct a map to store your results, but you may not use any other structures (arrays, lists, etc.) as auxiliary storage. (You can have as many simple variables as you like.)
  • You should not modify the contents of the map passed to your method.
    Declare your method in such a way that any caller can be sure that this will not happen.
  • Your solution should run in no worse than O(N log N) time, where N is the number of pairs in the map.
Method: Write a Java method as described, not a complete program or class.

You must log in before you can solve this problem.

Log In

Need help?

Stuck on an exercise? Contact your TA or instructor.

If something seems wrong with our site, please

Is there a problem? Contact us.