Smalltalk Collections: Managing Data Efficiently

July 18, 2024

Readers will explore Smalltalk collections in this post, understanding how to work with arrays, sets, and dictionaries to manage data efficiently. The post will cover common collection methods and operations in Smalltalk.

Arrays in Smalltalk

Arrays in Smalltalk are ordered collections of elements. They can hold a fixed number of elements and are indexed starting from 1. To create an array in Smalltalk, you can use the following syntax:

 | myArray | myArray := #(1 2 3 4 5).

Common operations on arrays include accessing elements by index, adding elements, removing elements, and iterating over the array.

Sets in Smalltalk

Sets in Smalltalk are unordered collections of unique elements. To create a set in Smalltalk, you can use the following syntax:

 | mySet | mySet := Set new. mySet add: 1. mySet add: 2.

Common operations on sets include adding elements, removing elements, checking for membership, and performing set operations like union, intersection, and difference.

Dictionaries in Smalltalk

Dictionaries in Smalltalk are key-value pairs where each key is unique. To create a dictionary in Smalltalk, you can use the following syntax:

 | myDict | myDict := Dictionary new. myDict at: 'key1' put: 'value1'. myDict at: 'key2' put: 'value2'.

Common operations on dictionaries include adding key-value pairs, accessing values by key, removing key-value pairs, and iterating over the keys or values.