Name ___________________ Netid_____________________
Class java.util.Vector provides the ability to maintain a growable/shrinkable
list of objects, which can be of great utility in cases where you don't know ahead of time how many objects will be in
the final list. In this lab, you will gain some experience with class Vector
and learn just how useful it can be. This material is covered in Sec. 5.3
(pp. 184-188) of the text. After the lab, study that section. Also, the API
is your friend. Use it! Clicking this link will open the API spec of class Vector in a new
window.
The developers of Java knew early on that they wanted some kind of growable
list, so they created class Vector and shipped it out with Java
v1.0. Later, however, they wanted to generalize the idea of a list. So they
created new classes that provide a more general implementation than Vector.
Rather than get rid of Vector --for "backward compatability" reasons,
you can't simply throw out old stuff-- for Java v1.2 the developers
added new methods to class
Vector so that it would be consistent with the other, newer, classes.
Many of these new methods do the same thing as the old ones. Some of the old
ones are
"deprecated" (to deprecate means to disapprove of, but often only mildly so).
But they will NOT go away, and you can use them. There is also a new class ArrayList, which can be used in place of Vector.
Several years ago, Java switched from version 1.4 of the language to version 1.5. Java 1.5
and 1.6 make it easier to work with Vectors of a particular class of elements,
like a Vector of elements of
class Character, which we will be working with here. If your computer has Java 1.4, you
have two options:
A Vector v contains a list of elements, numbered 0, 1, 2, .... Function v.size()
tells how many elements are in the list. We use the following non-Java notation
to refer to parts of the list. The notation helps us write things more clearly
and succinctly. We refer to the elements in the list as v[0], v[1], ...,
v[v.size()–1].
We refer to part of the list, say elements v[h], v[h+1], ...,
v[k],
using v[h..k]. We also write v[h..] to mean v[h],v[h+1],...,v[v.size()-1].
In Java 1.5, use this assignment statement to create a Vector that can contain elements only
of class
C and store its name in v:
Vector <C> v= new Vector <C>();
The appearance of <C> says that the Vector may contain only elements of class C.
In this lab, we will be working with Vector<Character>, meaning a Vector whose elements are of
class Character.
Vector v has a capacity, which is the number of elements for which
space in the computer memory has been allocated. This is different from its size, which is the number of elements in it. When an element is to be added to v but
the size is already equal to the capacity, Java allocates space for more elements
--for efficiency reasons, the capacity is usually doubled. The capacity can
also be controlled by the programmer.
Here is a list of the old methods, the corresponding new ones, and what they do:
| Old method | New method | Purpose |
| v.addElement(Object ob) | v.add(Object ob) | append ob to v's list. If v's type is class Vector<C>, ob should be of class C or a subtype of C. |
| v.insertElementAt(int k, Object ob) | v.add(int k, Object ob) | change v's list to v[0..k-1], ob, v[k..]. If v's type is class Vector<C>, ob should be of class C or a subtype of C. |
| v.elementAt(int k) | v.get(int k) | = v[k] |
| v.removeElement(Object ob) | v.remove(Object ob) | remove ob from the list in v (if it is there) |
| v.removeElementAt(int k) | v.remove(int k) | remove v[k] from v's list, changing it to v[0..k-1], v[k+1..] |
| v.removeAllElements() | v.clear() | remove all elements from v |
| v.setElementAt(Object ob, int k) | set(int k, Object ob) | replace v[k] by ob |
Other useful methods in class Vector are:
| v.size() | = the number of elements in v's list |
| v.capacity() | = the number of elements that are currently allocated for v's list --this can be different from the number of elements that are actually IN v's list! |
| v.indexOf(Object ob) | = i, where v[i] is the first occurrence of ob in the list |
| v.lastIndexOf(Object ob) | = i, where v[i] is the last occurrence of ob in the list |
| v.toString() | = a comma-separated list of the elements in v, enclosed in brackets |
Download file Lab05.java from the course website or from
here. This program will help you understand exactly what is happening
when you call various methods of a Vector.
Look over the code that we have provided. We have defined a Vector<Character> v,
which you will use throughout this lab. You can access it
from the Interactions pane of DrJava. We have also defined two constructors,
which will illustrate different qualities of Vector. Read the
specifications so you understand what each one does (according to the Vector API, the capacity increment is the amount by which the capacity of the vector is automatically incremented when its size becomes greater than its capacity). Don't worry about the
stubbed-in methods yet —the
ones you have to write; you'll get to them later.
Compile class Lab05 and type this into the Interactions pane.
Lab05 lab= new Lab05();A window should appear at the top of your screen containing a drawing of numbered boxes. This drawing represents
Vector<Character> object v in
class Lab05. Note that there
are 10 empty boxes, numbered 0-9. The numbers are called indices or indexes.
You use them to refer to the objects in the boxes.
Method add has a parameter of class Object. However, since Vector v
was created using new Vector<Character>(), only objects of class Character can be added to v. If v had been created using
new Vector<Object>(), you would have been able to add ANY Java object to a Vector.
But you cannot add primitive-type
values such as int or char values. This is one area where wrapper
classes are useful!
To avoid the problem of drawing arbitrary objects in the little boxes, only
instances of class Character are drawn. Any other object will be drawn as a
red question mark. (What other objects could there be? We'll see at least one example in this lab.)
Resize your DrJava window so that it doesn't block the drawing. Now try the following in the Interactions pane:
> lab.v.add(new Character('A'));
A Character object that wraps 'A' has been added to Vector v,
and you can see it in box 0.
Note: If you are using Java 1.5 or later, you can write simply "lab.v.add('A')"; 'A'
will automatically be wrapped in an object of class Character for you.
Now type:
> lab.v.remove(new Character('A'));(Do not use "
lab.v.remove('A')" regardless of
your version of Java, because the 'A' is, probably unexpectedly, interpreted as an int, and probably not the int you want!)
And it's gone from v. Note that you passed in two different objects to methods add and
remove. Vector uses method equals of each element v[i] of
Vector v, and for elements
of class Character, v[i].equals(ob) yields true
if the character in v[i] is the
same as the character in ob.
Type the following command to put some more objects in Vector v:
> lab.initializeV();
Look over the drawing. Note that an object can appear many times in the same list ('3' and '2' both appear twice). Now try the commands on the left in the table below, in the Interactions pane. On the right, write down what the command returned (if anything) and what happened to the Vector drawing. If you don't understand WHY certain commands do certain things, ask!
Tip 1: Use the up arrow key to get your previous command instead of repeatedly typing in "new Character...".
Tip 2: Make sure you're watching the Vector drawing when you hit Enter to execute your commands in the Interactions pane! It will be much easier to see what happened.
Tip 3: Make sure you leave off the semicolon when you make a function call; otherwise, you will not see not what the function returned.
| lab.v.add(new Character('B')); | |
| lab.v.remove(new Character('3')); | |
| lab.v.remove(new Character('7')); | |
| lab.v.indexOf(new Character('1')) | |
| lab.v.indexOf(new Character('B')) | |
| lab.v.get(5) | |
| lab.v.get(12) | |
| lab.v.indexOf(lab.v.get(2)) | What is this call doing? |
| lab.v.indexOf(lab.v.get(8)) | Why doesn't this return 8? |
| lab.v.firstElement() | |
| lab.v.set(1, new Character('O')); | |
| lab.v.capacity() | |
| lab.v.size() | |
| lab.v.toString() | |
| lab.v.trimToSize(); | |
| lab.v.setSize(12); | What is in the cells that have red question marks? Is the new capacity also 12? |
We have written four method stubs for you to implement; implement them. For the last, you do not need a loop or recursion.
As usual, we suggest you write and test the methods one at a time, thoroughly testing one before moving on to the next. We created the window that visualizes Vector v precisely to give you an easy way to test. For example, after writing the swap method, try lab.swap(0,1) and see what happens in the window.
| public void swap(int first, int second) | Swap the objects at v[first] and v[second] |
| public boolean moreThanOne(Object obj) | = "there is more than one occurrence of obj in v" Hint: Does looking at the first and last occurrences of obj in v help? |
| public boolean hasExtraSpace() | = "there is space allotted to v that is not being used" |
| public String toString() | = a string that has contains the characters of v, in the order in which they occur in v. Note: Do NOT use loops or recursion in writing toString. Hint: Use the existing toString of class Vector, but the resultant String has square brackets, commas, and braces in it, which you then need to remove using methods of class String. Remove the brackets first. Because of some syntax issues involving "regular expressions", don't use function replaceAll() on Strings containing brackets. |
Show your work to your TA or a consultant.