Kotlin: How to flatten list of Hashmaps - kotlin

Question

How can I flatten a list of HashMaps in Kotlin?
var listOfMaps: List<Map<String, String>> = listOf(mapOf("test" to "test1"), mapOf("test2" to "test3"), mapOf("test4" to "test5"))
I would like to get:Map<String,String> with all key value paires

Answer 1

val map:Map<String, String> = listOfMaps
.flatMap { it.entries }
.associate { it.key to it.value }

Answer 2

you can do something like this if you don't know if the list can be empty.
val map = listOfMaps.fold(mapOf<String, String>()) {acc, value -> acc + value }
If the list never will be empty you can use reduce instead.
Thank you Demigod for the comments

Answer 3

You could use fold:
listOfMaps.fold(
mutableMapOf<String, String>(),
{ acc, item -> acc.also { it.putAll(item) } }
)
The first parameter mutableMapOf<String, String>() creates an empty map to put the values into. This is called the accumulator
The second parameter is a function which takes two arguments
The accumulator
An item from the original list
This function is run sequentially against all items in the list. In our case it adds all the items from each map to the accumulator.
Note: This function does not account for duplicate keys. If a later map has the same key as an earlier one then the value just gets overridden.
Also note (pun intended): We use acc.also {} as we want to return the actual map, not the return value from the addAll method

Answer 4

Well... seeing lots of solutions, I will add my two cents here:
If you don't mind losing the values of duplicated keys you can use something as follows:
listOfMaps.flatMap { it.entries }.associate{ it.key to it.value } // or: it.toPair() if you will
// depending on how large those lists can become, you may want to consider also using asSequence
If you instead want to collect all entries including duplicate keys (i.e. saving all the values), use the following instead (which then gives you a Map<String, List<String>>):
listOfMaps.flatMap { it.entries }.groupBy({ it.key }) { it.value }
Also here the comment regarding asSequence holds...
Finally if you can omit those maps within the list and just use a Pair instead, that will spare you the flatMap { it.entries }-call and make things even easier, e.g. you could just call .toMap() then for the first case and groupBy directly for the second and the question regarding asSequence no longer arises.

Answer 5

An extra addition to this, if you have single value maps, maybe you want to switch to a List<Prair<String, String>>. In that case, the solution is straight forward:
You would have something like:
var listOfMaps: List<Pair<String, String>> = listOf("test" to "test1", "test2" to "test3", "test4" to "test5")
and toMap() would dsolve it all:
listOfMaps.toMap()

Answer 6

If you don't have duplicate keys or don't care for them, you can do it like this:
val flattenedMap = listOfMaps.flatMap { it.toList() }.toMap()
If you have duplicate keys and care for them, you can do it like this:
val flattenedMap = mutableMapOf<String, MutableList<String>>().apply {
listOfMaps.flatMap { it.toList() }.forEach {
getOrPut(it.first) {
mutableListOf()
}.add(it.second)
}
}
The result will be Map<String, List<String>> then of course.

Answer 7

This solution works with same keys (and different collection as values) by merging them together instead of overwriting them
/**
* Merge two maps with lists
*/
fun <K,V>Map<K,Collection<V>>.mergeLists(other: Map<K,Collection<V>>) =
(this.keys + other.keys).associateWith {key ->
setOf(this[key], other[key]).filterNotNull()
}.mapValues { (_,b) -> b.flatten().distinct() }
/**
* Merge two maps with sets
*/
fun <K,V>Map<K,Collection<V>>.mergeSets(other: Map<K,Collection<V>>) =
(this.keys + other.keys).associateWith {key ->
setOf(this[key], other[key]).filterNotNull()
}.mapValues { (_,b) -> b.flatten().toSet() }
Then use like e.g. listOfMaps.reduce { a, b -> a.mergeSets(b) }
Test:
#Test
fun `should merge two maps with as lists or sets`() {
// GIVEN
val map1 = mapOf(
"a" to listOf(1, 2, 3),
"b" to listOf(4, 5, 6),
"c" to listOf(10),
"e" to emptyList()
)
val map2 = mapOf(
"a" to listOf(1, 9),
"b" to listOf(7),
"d" to listOf(null)
)
// WHEN
val mergedAsLists = map1.mergeLists(map2)
val mergedAsSets = map1.mergeSets(map2)
// THEN
listOf(mergedAsLists, mergedAsSets).forEach { merged ->
assertThat(merged.keys).containsOnly("a", "b", "c", "d", "e")
assertThat(merged["a"]).containsOnly(1,2,3,9)
assertThat(merged["b"]).containsOnly(4,5,6,7)
assertThat(merged["c"]).containsOnly(10)
assertThat(merged["d"]).containsOnly(null)
assertThat(merged["e"]).isEmpty()
}
}