public HashMap<String,String> hashMap(){
  HashMap<String,String> retMap=new HashMap<String,String>();
  for (  String key : properties.keySet()) {
    Object value=properties.get(key);
    if (value != null) {
      retMap.put(key,value.toString());
    }
 else {
      retMap.put(key,null);
    }
  }
  return retMap;
}

public HashMap < String , String > hashMap ( ) { HashMap < String , String > retMap = new HashMap < String , String > ( ) ; for ( String key : properties . keySet ( ) ) { Object value = properties . get ( key ) ; if ( value != null ) { retMap . put ( key , value . toString ( ) ) ; } else { retMap . put ( key , null ) ; } } return retMap ; }
returns a shallow copy of the underlying map as a hashmap .
