Comments on: Year seriously over now http://cairnarvon.rotahall.org/2008/06/28/year-seriously-over-now/ Unscientific and ultimately destructive. Wed, 18 Aug 2010 09:52:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Cairnarvon http://cairnarvon.rotahall.org/2008/06/28/year-seriously-over-now/comment-page-1/#comment-30591 Cairnarvon Sat, 28 Jun 2008 08:17:39 +0000 http://cairnarvon.rotahall.org/?p=997#comment-30591 Plain arrays would be too slow to either search in or to add/remove entries (depending on how you did it), unless you used a few of them to implement your own data structure. Java is probably too ``high-level'' to let you do that efficiently. <code>ArrayList</code> and <code>Vector</code> are too slow in that they're basically just dynamically resizable arrays and manipulating them is going to require a lot of copying data around. So yeah, unless you know something about data structures (which we officially don't), it's pretty hard to get it right with just arrays, and he's just trying to steer us in the direction of whatever specific library class he's thinking of. (<code>Vector</code> is just a synchronised <code>ArrayList</code> with some redundant methods added.) Plain arrays would be too slow to either search in or to add/remove entries (depending on how you did it), unless you used a few of them to implement your own data structure. Java is probably too “high-level” to let you do that efficiently.
ArrayList and Vector are too slow in that they’re basically just dynamically resizable arrays and manipulating them is going to require a lot of copying data around.

So yeah, unless you know something about data structures (which we officially don’t), it’s pretty hard to get it right with just arrays, and he’s just trying to steer us in the direction of whatever specific library class he’s thinking of.

(Vector is just a synchronised ArrayList with some redundant methods added.)

]]> By: echomikeromeo http://cairnarvon.rotahall.org/2008/06/28/year-seriously-over-now/comment-page-1/#comment-30589 echomikeromeo Sat, 28 Jun 2008 08:04:27 +0000 http://cairnarvon.rotahall.org/?p=997#comment-30589 I'm still hung up on why you wouldn't want to use ArrayList or arrays (I don't know Vector, since I've only had a semester). Is it just cause you're supposed to be doing something more advanced, or is an array/ArrayList actually a dumb solution to the problem? I’m still hung up on why you wouldn’t want to use ArrayList or arrays (I don’t know Vector, since I’ve only had a semester). Is it just cause you’re supposed to be doing something more advanced, or is an array/ArrayList actually a dumb solution to the problem?

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