Java dynamic array sizes?

I have a class - xClass, that I want to load into an array of xClass so I the declaration:

xClass mysclass[] = new xClass[10];
myclass[0] = new xClass();
myclass[9] = new xClass();

However, I don't know if I will need 10. I may need 8 or 12 or any other number for that matter. I won't know until runtime. Can I change the number of elements in an array on the fly? If so, how?

Solution 1:

No you can't change the size of an array once created. You either have to allocate it bigger than you think you'll need or accept the overhead of having to reallocate it needs to grow in size. When it does you'll have to allocate a new one and copy the data from the old to the new:

int[] oldItems = new int[10];
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
    oldItems[i] = i + 10;
}
int[] newItems = new int[20];
System.arraycopy(oldItems, 0, newItems, 0, 10);
oldItems = newItems;

If you find yourself in this situation, I'd highly recommend using the Java Collections instead. In particular ArrayList essentially wraps an array and takes care of the logic for growing the array as required:

List<XClass> myclass = new ArrayList<XClass>();
myclass.add(new XClass());
myclass.add(new XClass());

Generally an ArrayList is a preferable solution to an array anyway for several reasons. For one thing, arrays are mutable. If you have a class that does this:

class Myclass {
    private int[] items;

    public int[] getItems() {
        return items;
    }
}

you've created a problem as a caller can change your private data member, which leads to all sorts of defensive copying. Compare this to the List version:

class Myclass {
    private List<Integer> items;

    public List<Integer> getItems() {
        return Collections.unmodifiableList(items);
    }
}

Solution 2:

In java array length is fixed.

You can use a List to hold the values and invoke the toArray method if needed See the following sample:

import java.util.List;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Random;

public class A  {

    public static void main( String [] args ) {
        // dynamically hold the instances
        List<xClass> list = new ArrayList<xClass>();

        // fill it with a random number between 0 and 100
        int elements = new Random().nextInt(100);  
        for( int i = 0 ; i < elements ; i++ ) {
            list.add( new xClass() );
        }

        // convert it to array
        xClass [] array = list.toArray( new xClass[ list.size() ] );


        System.out.println( "size of array = " + array.length );
    }
}
class xClass {}

Solution 3:

As others have said, you cannot change the size of an existing Java array.

ArrayList is the closest that standard Java has to a dynamic sized array. However, there are some things about ArrayList (actually the List interface) that are not "array like". For example:

• You cannot use [ ... ] to index a list. You have to use the get(int) and set(int, E) methods.
• An ArrayList is created with zero elements. You cannot simple create an ArrayList with 20 elements and then call set(15, foo).
• You cannot directly change the size of an ArrayList. You do it indirectly using the various add, insert and remove methods.

If you want something more array-like, you will need to design your own API. (Maybe someone could chime in with an existing third party library ... I couldn't find one with 2 minutes "research" using Google :-) )

If you only really need an array that grows as you are initializing it, then the solution is something like this.

ArrayList<T> tmp = new ArrayList<T>();
while (...) {
    tmp.add(new T(...));
}
// This creates a new array and copies the element of 'tmp' to it.
T[] array = tmp.toArray(new T[tmp.size()]);

Solution 4:

You set the number of elements to anything you want at the time you create it:

xClass[] mysclass = new xClass[n];

Then you can initialize the elements in a loop. I am guessing that this is what you need.

If you need to add or remove elements to the array after you create it, then you would have to use an ArrayList.