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Possible Duplicate:
Primitive Array vs ArrayList

What is the difference between List and Array in java? or the difference between Array and Vector!

Community
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andrussk
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    http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7869212/primitive-array-vs-arraylist - arrays are primitives, `List` is an interface which defines a set of operations on sequential containers, and `Vector implements List`. Unless you meant `ArrayList`, and not `Array`. – wkl May 07 '12 at 18:27
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    you should read their documentation before posting a question: interface [List](http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/util/List.html), class [ArrayList](http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/util/ArrayList.html) and class [Vector](http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/util/Vector.html) – Luiggi Mendoza May 07 '12 at 18:27

1 Answers1

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In general (and in Java) an array is a data structure generally consisting of sequential memory storing a collection of objects.

List is an interface in Java, which means that it may have multiple implementations. One of these implementations is ArrayList, which is a class that implements the behavior of the List interface using arrays as the data structure.

There are a number of other classes that implement the List interface. One easy way to take a look at them is by viewing the Javadoc for List: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/util/List.html

On that page, you'll see "all known implementing classes," which are all of the kinds of lists in Java.

Tom
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