Besides having more methods to play with, Vectors are synchronized, where as ArrayLists are not. I am more familiar with ArrayList than Vector, so I can't really give any good examples of why you would use one over the other, but I would venture a guess that if you want a synchronized List that multiple threads could modify, you would use a Vector. See the API at http://java.sun.com/products/jdk/1.2/docs/api/index.html . Someone else could probably give concrete examples, Jason [This message has been edited by jason adam (edited September 04, 2001).]
Thanks jason. but would be glad to know if there are some more differnces which may help in selecting between Vector and ArrayList. Regards, Amit, New Delhi.
ArrayLists are favoured more now because they are part of the Collections classes and fit in more with the new Java 1.2+ API... Vectors are left over from earlier versions, and should only be used in two cases I can think of:
In addition to the above, it is worth mentioning that in cases where a synchronized collection is NOT required, you should ALWAYS prefer an ArrayList to a Vector, since ArrayList provides quicker access due to the lack of overhead w/regard to obtaining locks before executing each method. In a simple example in Peter Haggar's "Practical Java" book, the ArrayList code is 4 times faster than the equivalent code using Vector.
------------------ "One good thing about music - when it hits, you feel no pain" Bob Marley
Post by:autobot
I guess everyone has an angle. Fine, what do you want? Just know that you cannot have this tiny ad:
a bit of art, as a gift, the permaculture playing cards