Write a method named rarest that accepts a TreeMap from strings to strings as a parameter and returns the value that occurs least frequently in the map.
If there is a tie, return the value that comes earlier in ABC order.
For example, if a variable called map containing the following elements:
{"Alyssa":"Harding", "Char":"Smith", "Dan":"Smith", "Jeff":"Jones", "Kasey":"Jones",
"Kim":"Smith", "Morgan":"Jones", "Ryan":"Smith", "Stef":"Harding"}
Then a call of rarest(map) would return "Harding" because that value occurs 2 times, fewer than any other.
Note that we are examining the values in the map, not the keys.
If the map passed is empty, throw an IllegalArgumentException.
Constraints:
Obey the following restrictions in your solution.
- You may create one additional data structure (stack, queue, set, map, 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.
