Map<String, Object> as a @Bean not working as expected even with a @Qualifier when autowired.

[vikuwo]

Affects: 6.1.0

---

Code:

import java.util.Map;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Qualifier;
import org.springframework.boot.CommandLineRunner;
import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;

@SpringBootApplication
public class Main implements CommandLineRunner {

  @Configuration
  public static class Config {

    @Bean("qualifiedMap")
    Map<String, Object> qualifiedMap() {
      return Map.of("k1", "v1", "k2", "v2", "k3", "v3");
    }

  }

  @Autowired
  @Qualifier("qualifiedMap")
  private Map<String, Object> qualifiedMap;

  @Autowired
  private ApplicationContext applicationContext;
  
  @Override
  public void run(String... args) {
    System.out.printf("Autowired Bean: %s%n", qualifiedMap);
    System.out.printf("Context Bean: %s%n", applicationContext.getBean("qualifiedMap", Map.class));
  }

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    SpringApplication.run(Main.class, args);
  }

}

Output:

Autowired Bean: {qualifiedMap={k1=v1, k3=v3, k2=v2}}
Context Bean: {k1=v1, k3=v3, k2=v2}

When we mark a Map<String, Object> as @bean with a qualifier, @Autowired refers to a different map. The bean seems fine when directly fetched from the application context.

[liua1004]

It will be fine to use @Resource, @Autowired will find candidate by type.

Map, Collection(include Set and List) and Array are different when autowiring. They will find bean which has the same type as the element they storage.

[vikuwo]

But this shouldn't be the case when we use @Autowire along with a @Qualifier. It should autowire the exact bean. That way, if I have the multiple Maps or Collections of the same element type, I would still be able to autowire a specific bean.

[liua1004]

It depends on how to understand the annotation Qualifier. I think that it just provides a candidate, but not change the autowire logic. Maybe I am wrong.

[vikuwo]

At least the below statements should produce the same result. Otherwise the behaviour is not consistent.

    System.out.printf("Autowired Bean: %s%n", qualifiedMap);
    System.out.printf("Context Bean: %s%n", applicationContext.getBean("qualifiedMap", Map.class));

[jhoeller]

As far as I can tell, this works as of 6.2 due to #28122 - as a welcome side effect of that algorithmic optimization. Feel free to try the recently released 6.2.0-RC1 to double-check.