import java.util.Map; import java.util.HashMap; public class Strings { private static final Map TO_ID; static { TO_ID = new HashMap(); } private Strings () {} /* Utility class. */ public static IDs get_id_from_string (final String string) { IDs result; result = TO_ID.get(string); if (result == null) { result = IDs.generate_new_id("string"); TO_ID.put(string, result); } return result; } }