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h1. A Road to Trouble

When programming in Java, you generally have [collections|http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/collections/] of objects, as discussed [here|http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/collections/].  Often, you want to create a variable (or constraint) for element of a collection.  A *bad* approach is illustrated below:
{code}
Set<String> stringCollection = makeSomeStrings();//assume this is defined elsewhere
IloCplex cplex = new IloCplex();
String[] stringToIndex = new String[stringCollection.size()];
IloIntVar[] variablesToIndex = cplex.boolVarArray(stringCollection.size());
int i = 0;
for(String s: stringCollection){
  stringToIndex[i++] = s;
}
{code}
Then given a String from the collection, we could access the corresponding IloIntVar, and with an IloIntVar, we would access the corresponding String, with the following snippets
{code}
public IloIntVar getVariableForString(String s, String[] stringToIndex, IloIntVar[] variablesToIndex){
  for(int i = 0; i < stringToIndex.length; i++){
    if(stringToIndex[i].equals(s)){
      return variablesToIndex[i];
    }
  }
  return null;
}
public String getStringForVariable(IloIntVar v, String[] stringToIndex, IloIntVar[] variablesToIndex){
  for(int i = 0; i < variablesToIndex.length; i++){
    if(variablesToIndex[i] == v){
      return stringToIndex[i];
    }
  }
  return null;
}
{code}
There are several reasons to be concerned with this.
* For {mathinline}n{mathinline} variables, access time takes {mathinline}O(n){mathinline}.
* We are maintaining two data structures and an index by hand, which leave a lot of room for programmer error
* We cannot add new variables at a later date

We can eliminate any chance of an indexing error and improve our access time to {mathinline}O(1){mathinline} by replacing our two arrays by two [HashMaps|http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/util/HashMap.html], e.g.
{code}
Set<String> stringCollection = makeSomeStrings();//assume this is defined elsewhere
IloCplex cplex = new IloCplex();
Map<String,IloIntVar> stringToVariable = new HashMap<String,IloIntVar>();
Map<IloIntVar,String> variableToString = new HashMap<IloIntVar,String>();
for(String s: stringCollection){
  IloIntVar v = cplex.boolVar();
  stringToVariable.put(s,v);
  variableToString.put(v,s);
}
{code}
However, we are still maintaining two separate data structures which we need to keep synchronized, which is asking for trouble.  

h1. Good Style

Instead, we use [Guava's|http://code.google.com/p/guava-libraries/wiki/GuavaExplained?tm=6] special data structure, the [ImmutableBiMap|http://docs.guava-libraries.googlecode.com/git/javadoc/com/google/common/collect/ImmutableBiMap.html], which will maintain two HashMaps for us (and as a bonus, prevent any accidental modifications once we _build_ the map).  The following methods can be found in Util.java in your project:
{code}
public static <T> ImmutableBiMap<T,IloIntVar> makeBinaryVariables(IloCplex cplex, Iterable<T> set) throws IloException{
	Builder<T,IloIntVar> ans = ImmutableBiMap.builder();
	for(T t: set){
		ans.put(t, cplex.boolVar());
	}
	return ans.build();
}
public static <T> IloLinearIntExpr integerSum(IloCplex cplex, 
		BiMap<T,IloIntVar> variables, Iterable<T> set, 
		Function<? super T,Integer> coefficients) throws IloException{
	IloLinearIntExpr sum = cplex.linearIntExpr();
	for(T t: set){
		sum.addTerm(variables.get(t), coefficients.apply(t));
	}
	return sum;
}
public static <T> IloLinearIntExpr integerSum(IloCplex cplex, 
		BiMap<T,IloIntVar> variables, Iterable<T> set) throws IloException{
	return integerSum(cplex,variables,set,unity);
}

private static Function<Object,Integer> unity = new Function<Object,Integer>(){
	@Override
	public Integer apply(Object arg0) {
		return 1;
	}};
{code}