I know, this is an old question. But just for the sake of completeness, the lambda version.
Map<String, List<Item>> items = new HashMap<>();
items.computeIfAbsent(key, k -> new ArrayList<>()).add(item);
I know, this is an old question. But just for the sake of completeness, the lambda version.
Map<String, List<Item>> items = new HashMap<>();
items.computeIfAbsent(key, k -> new ArrayList<>()).add(item);