Difference Between TreeSet and SortedSet in Java

Difficulty Level : Medium
Last Updated : 01 Nov, 2021

TreeSet is one of the implementations of the Navigable sub-interface. It is underlying data structure is a red-black tree. The elements are stored in ascending order and more methods are available in TreeSet compare to SortedSet. We can also change the sorting parameter using a Comparator. For example, Comparator provided at set creation time, depending on which constructor is used.

It also implements NavigableSet interface.
NavigableSet extends SortedSet and Set interfaces.

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Example

Java

// Java Program to Illustrate TreeSet
 
// Importing required classes
import java.util.*;
 
// Main class
class GFG {
 
    // Main driver method
    public static void main(String args[]) {
 
        // Creating an empty TreeSet of string type elements
        TreeSet<String> al = new TreeSet<String>();
 
        // Adding elements
        // using add() method
        al.add("Welcome");
        al.add("to");
        al.add("Geeks for Geeks");
 
        // Traversing elements via help of iterators
        Iterator<String> itr = al.iterator();
 
        // Holds true until there is element remaining in object
        while (itr.hasNext()) {
 
            // Moving onto next element with help of next() method
            System.out.println(itr.next());
        }
    }
}

Output

Geeks for Geeks
Welcome
to

Sorted Set

The SortedSet is a sub-interface, which is available in java.util.package which extends the Set interface. This interface contains the methods inherited from the Set interface. For example, headSet, tailSet, subSet, Comparator, first, last, and many more.

Example

Java

// Java program to Illustrate SortedSet
 
// Importing utility classes
import java.util.*;
 
// Main class
class GFG {
 
    // Main driver method
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
 
        // Creating an instance of SortedSet
        // String type
        SortedSet<String> ts = new TreeSet<String>();
 
        // Adding elements into the TreeSet
        // using add()
        ts.add("Sravan");
        ts.add("Ojaswi");
        ts.add("Bobby");
        ts.add("Rohith");
        ts.add("Gnanesh");
        ts.add("Devi2");
 
        // Adding the duplicate element
        // again simply using add() method
        ts.add("Sravan");
 
        // Print and display TreeSet
        System.out.println(ts);
 
        // Removing items from TreeSet
        // using remove() method
        ts.remove("Ojaswi");
 
        // Display message
        System.out.println("Iterating over set:");
 
        // Iterating over TreeSet items
        Iterator<String> i = ts.iterator();
 
        // Condition holds true till there is single element
        // remaining in the object
        while (i.hasNext())
 
            // Printing elements
            System.out.println(i.next());
    }
}

Output

[Bobby, Devi2, Gnanesh, Ojaswi, Rohith, Sravan]
Iterating over set:
Bobby
Devi2
Gnanesh
Rohith
Sravan

Now after having adequate understanding and internal working of both TreeSet and SortedSet, now let us see the differences between TreeSet and SortedSet which is as depicted from the table provided below as follows:

Basis	TreeSet	SortedSet
Classification	Class of NavigableSet sub-interface.	Sub-Interface
Insertion Order	TreeSet maintains an object in sorted order.	SortedSet maintains an object in sorted order.
Initialization	Syntax: TreeSet<Datatype> treeset = new TreeSet<>();	Syntax: It can not be instantiated as it is a sub-Interface.
Methods	Contains more methods than SortedSet.	Contains fewer methods than TreeSet.
Example	contains all the methods of SortSet. In addition methods like ceiling(), floor(), higher(), lower() and e.t.c	contains methods like add(), addAll(), iterator(), retainAll() and e.t.c

Conclusion: Basically in simple words let’s assume this way, TreeSet is a class of NavigableSet which contains all of the methods for better traversing and searching for values. SortedSet is a sub-set of NavigableSet in terms of methods compare to TreeSet(NavigableSet)

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Difference Between TreeSet and SortedSet in Java

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