This implementation provides guaranteed log(n) time cost for the containsKey, get, put and remove operations. Algorithms are adaptations of those in Cormen, Leiserson, and Rivest's Introduction to Algorithms.

Note that the ordering maintained by a sorted map (whether or not an explicit comparator is provided) must be consistent with equals if this sorted map is to correctly implement the Map interface. (See Comparable or Comparator for a precise definition of consistent with equals.) This is so because the Map interface is defined in terms of the equals operation, but a map performs all key comparisons using its compareTo (or compare) method, so two keys that are deemed equal by this method are, from the standpoint of the sorted map, equal. The behavior of a sorted map is well-defined even if its ordering is inconsistent with equals; it just fails to obey the general contract of the Map interface.

Note that this implementation is not synchronized. If multiple threads access a map concurrently, and at least one of the threads modifies the map structurally, it must be synchronized externally. (A structural modification is any operation that adds or deletes one or more mappings; merely changing the value associated with an existing key is not a structural modification.) This is typically accomplished by synchronizing on some object that naturally encapsulates the map. If no such object exists, the map should be "wrapped" using the Collections.synchronizedSortedMap method. This is best done at creation time, to prevent accidental unsynchronized access to the map:

   SortedMap m = Collections.synchronizedSortedMap(new TreeMap(...));

The iterators returned by the iterator method of the collections returned by all of this class's "collection view methods" are fail-fast: if the map is structurally modified at any time after the iterator is created, in any way except through the iterator's own remove method, the iterator will throw a ConcurrentModificationException. Thus, in the face of concurrent modification, the iterator fails quickly and cleanly, rather than risking arbitrary, non-deterministic behavior at an undetermined time in the future.

Note that the fail-fast behavior of an iterator cannot be guaranteed as it is, generally speaking, impossible to make any hard guarantees in the presence of unsynchronized concurrent modification. Fail-fast iterators throw ConcurrentModificationException on a best-effort basis. Therefore, it would be wrong to write a program that depended on this exception for its correctness: the fail-fast behavior of iterators should be used only to detect bugs.

All Map.Entry pairs returned by methods in this class and its views represent snapshots of mappings at the time they were produced. They do not support the Entry.setValue method. (Note however that it is possible to change mappings in the associated map using put.)

This class is a member of the Java Collections Framework.