How can I combine two HashMap objects containing the same types?

map3 = new HashMap<>();

map3.putAll(map1);
map3.putAll(map2);

If you know you don't have duplicate keys, or you want values in map2 to overwrite values from map1 for duplicate keys, you can just write

map3 = new HashMap<>(map1);
map3.putAll(map2);

If you need more control over how values are combined, you can use Map.merge, added in Java 8, which uses a user-provided BiFunction to merge values for duplicate keys. merge operates on individual keys and values, so you'll need to use a loop or Map.forEach. Here we concatenate strings for duplicate keys:

map3 = new HashMap<>(map1);
for (Map.Entry<String, String> e : map2.entrySet())
    map3.merge(e.getKey(), e.getValue(), String::concat);
//or instead of the above loop
map2.forEach((k, v) -> map3.merge(k, v, String::concat));

If you know you don't have duplicate keys and want to enforce it, you can use a merge function that throws an AssertionError:

map2.forEach((k, v) ->
    map3.merge(k, v, (v1, v2) ->
        {throw new AssertionError("duplicate values for key: "+k);}));

Taking a step back from this specific question, the Java 8 streams library provides toMap and groupingBy Collectors. If you're repeatedly merging maps in a loop, you may be able to restructure your computation to use streams, which can both clarify your code and enable easy parallelism using a parallel stream and concurrent collector.

One-liner using Java 8 Stream API:

map3 = Stream.of(map1, map2).flatMap(m -> m.entrySet().stream())
       .collect(Collectors.toMap(Entry::getKey, Entry::getValue))

Among the benefits of this method is ability to pass a merge function, which will deal with values that have the same key, for example:

map3 = Stream.of(map1, map2).flatMap(m -> m.entrySet().stream())
       .collect(Collectors.toMap(Entry::getKey, Entry::getValue, Math::max))

Java 8 alternative one-liner for merging two maps:

defaultMap.forEach((k, v) -> destMap.putIfAbsent(k, v));

The same with method reference:

defaultMap.forEach(destMap::putIfAbsent);

Or idemponent for original maps solution with third map:

Map<String, Integer> map3 = new HashMap<String, Integer>(map2);
map1.forEach(map3::putIfAbsent);

And here is a way to merge two maps into fast immutable one with Guava that does least possible intermediate copy operations:

ImmutableMap.Builder<String, Integer> builder = ImmutableMap.<String, Integer>builder();
builder.putAll(map1);
map2.forEach((k, v) -> {if (!map1.containsKey(k)) builder.put(k, v);});
ImmutableMap<String, Integer> map3 = builder.build();

See also Merge two maps with Java 8 for cases when values present in both maps need to be combined with mapping function.

How can I combine two HashMap objects containing the same types?

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