Module java.base
Package java.util

Class Vector<E>

java.lang.Object
Type Parameters:
E - Type of component elements
All Implemented Interfaces:
Serializable, Cloneable, Iterable<E>, Collection<E>, List<E>, RandomAccess, SequencedCollection<E>
Direct Known Subclasses:
Stack

public class Vector<E> extends AbstractList<E> implements List<E>, RandomAccess, Cloneable, Serializable
The Vector class implements a growable array of objects. Like an array, it contains components that can be accessed using an integer index. However, the size of a Vector can grow or shrink as needed to accommodate adding and removing items after the Vector has been created.

Each vector tries to optimize storage management by maintaining a capacity and a capacityIncrement. The capacity is always at least as large as the vector size; it is usually larger because as components are added to the vector, the vector's storage increases in chunks the size of capacityIncrement. An application can increase the capacity of a vector before inserting a large number of components; this reduces the amount of incremental reallocation.

The iterators returned by this class's iterator and listIterator methods are fail-fast: if the vector is structurally modified at any time after the iterator is created, in any way except through the iterator's own remove or add methods, the iterator will throw a ConcurrentModificationException. Thus, in the face of concurrent modification, the iterator fails quickly and cleanly, rather than risking arbitrary, non-deterministic behavior at an undetermined time in the future. The Enumerations returned by the elements method are not fail-fast; if the Vector is structurally modified at any time after the enumeration is created then the results of enumerating are undefined.

Note that the fail-fast behavior of an iterator cannot be guaranteed as it is, generally speaking, impossible to make any hard guarantees in the presence of unsynchronized concurrent modification. Fail-fast iterators throw ConcurrentModificationException on a best-effort basis. Therefore, it would be wrong to write a program that depended on this exception for its correctness: the fail-fast behavior of iterators should be used only to detect bugs.

As of the Java 2 platform v1.2, this class was retrofitted to implement the List interface, making it a member of the Java Collections Framework. Unlike the new collection implementations, Vector is synchronized. If a thread-safe implementation is not needed, it is recommended to use ArrayList in place of Vector.

Since:
1.0
See Also: