ArrayList vs LinkedList < Element> in Java

2020-07-28
#java

##ArrayList

ArrayList internally is actually a dynamic array

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public class ArrayList<E> extends AbstractList<E>
        implements List<E>, RandomAccess, Cloneable, java.io.Serializable
{
    private static final long serialVersionUID = 8683452581122892189L;

    /**
     * Default initial capacity.
     */
    private static final int DEFAULT_CAPACITY = 10;

    /**
     * Shared empty array instance used for empty instances.
     */
    private static final Object[] EMPTY_ELEMENTDATA = {};

    /**
     * Shared empty array instance used for default sized empty instances. We
     * distinguish this from EMPTY_ELEMENTDATA to know how much to inflate when
     * first element is added.
     */
    private static final Object[] DEFAULTCAPACITY_EMPTY_ELEMENTDATA = {};

    /**
     * The array buffer into which the elements of the ArrayList are stored.
     * The capacity of the ArrayList is the length of this array buffer. Any
     * empty ArrayList with elementData == DEFAULTCAPACITY_EMPTY_ELEMENTDATA
     * will be expanded to DEFAULT_CAPACITY when the first element is added.
     */
    transient Object[] elementData; // non-private to simplify nested class access

And if we look at the constructor

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public ArrayList(int initialCapacity) {
    if (initialCapacity > 0) {
        this.elementData = new Object[initialCapacity];
    } else if (initialCapacity == 0) {
        this.elementData = EMPTY_ELEMENTDATA;
    } else {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("Illegal Capacity: "+
                                           initialCapacity);
    }
}

Initlally, it tries to create an empty array or a new array with ‘initialCapacity’;

##LinkedList

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public class LinkedList<E>
    extends AbstractSequentialList<E>
    implements List<E>, Deque<E>, Cloneable, java.io.Serializable
{
    transient int size = 0;

    /**
     * Pointer to first node.
     */
    transient Node<E> first;

    /**
     * Pointer to last node.
     */
    transient Node<E> last;

LinkedList internally is actually a double linked list, it has head and tail (first, last node) information.

So when get(index) to get an element, in array, the time complexitiy is O(1); but linkedlist is O(n);

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//array
   E elementData(int index) {
       return (E) elementData[index];
   }

   //linked list
       Node<E> node(int index) {
       // assert isElementIndex(index);

       if (index < (size >> 1)) {
           Node<E> x = first;
           for (int i = 0; i < index; i++)
               x = x.next;
           return x;
       } else {
           Node<E> x = last;
           for (int i = size - 1; i > index; i--)
               x = x.prev;
           return x;
       }
   }

More details can be found in java SDK, It seems most of time we can use ArrayList.
Which is similar we use ‘Vector’ in C++;