Information Technology

Applications Programming

LECTURE 4
Lists

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Lists
Learning Objectives
At the end of the lecture, you should be able to:

Describe a list, its structure and features

Describe and use type casting

Understand how a LinkedList is used including commonly used
methods

Understand what an iterator does

Use enhanced for loops

Describe and use an enum

WU Chapters 16.1-16.4 & 5.7

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What is a List ?

A list is an ordered collection of elements (objects)

It has a collection of cells, each with a

pointer to the element and a pointer to
the next cell

A user can access elements in the list by
their index (position) and search the list
for a specific element

Identical elements can be used in a list
(unlike arrays)

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1
List Structure
A List can be:
• one way – last cell has a null pointer

• or two way – has both next and last pointer

Diagrams Courtesy of Dr. Robert Rist, UTS

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List Manipulation
Elements can be added and deleted

Add

Delete

Diagrams Courtesy of Dr. Robert Rist, UTS

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List Features

Class LinkedList implements a two way list

add(Object o) appends objects to the end of the list

remove(Object o) removes the first instance of an element from the list –

there can be more than one object matching “o”

clear() removes all objects from the list

size() returns the number of elements in the list

get(int index) returns the object at the given index

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2
A Simple List

We can create a LinkedList and add some objects

LinkedList rectangles = new LinkedList();

rectangles.add(new Rectangle(2.0, 3.0);
rectangles.add(new Rectangle(3.0, 4.0);
rectangles.add(new Rectangle(4.0, 5.0);

The list has 3 objects, so rectangles.size() will return 3

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Retrieving Objects from a List

rectangles.get(2); will retrieve the 3rd element in the list

We have not declared the type of objects in our list, so we

must cast the retrieved object to a Rectangle if we want to
access the Rectangle methods.

Rectangle rectangle = (Rectangle) rectangles.get(2);

rectangle.area();

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Review of Casting
In IPRG001, you used casting on primitive data types

• int result = (int)(height*length);

• This uses height (as a double)
Simple Cast then casts the multiplication
result to an int

• int result = ((int)height)*length

Immediate • This casts height to an int before
it is used in multiplication
Cast
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Casting Object references

We can cast to

Rectangle rectangle = (Rectangle) rectangles.get(2);

An object can be cast to any other class in its hierarchy tree

(that is, subclass or superclass)

Remember: All classes inherit from Object unless a parent

class is specified (using implementation inheritance)

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A LinkedList with Declared Type

Since the rectangles list only contains Rectangle objects, we can

declare the type of objects held by the list

LinkedList<Rectangle> rectangles = new LinkedList<Rectangle>();

rectangles.add(new Rectangle(2.0, 3.0);
rectangles.add(new Rectangle(3.0, 4.0);
rectangles.add(new Rectangle(4.0, 5.0);

Now we can retrieve the objects as Rectangle objects

without casting
Rectangle rectangle = rectangles.get(2);
rectangle.area();

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List Iterator
A list iterator (itr or litr) retrieves an element from the list

• hasNext() – boolean – returns

true if another element exists
Iterator in the list (in a forward
direction)

methods • next() – returns current

element and moves to the next
element in the list

A basic iterator returns an object as type Object – so the

returned object must be cast
Or the elements in the ListIterator must have a type
declared ie ListIterator <Rectangle>
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LinkedList Iterator Methods
add(Object O) inserts element into the list

hasNext() checks if the next element exists

hasPrevious() checks if the previous element exists

next() returns the next element in the list

previous() returns the previous element in the list

remove() removes the last element returned using next() or previous()

set(Object o) replaces the last element returned with the specified element

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Quick Quiz
With a partner, discuss and answer these questions:

What method would you use to delete all elements in a

LinkedList ?

What does a list iterator do ?

What method would you use to remove the current element
from a LinkedList, using the LinkedList Iterator?

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Retrieving Elements Using an Iterator

ListIterator<Rectangle> li = rectangles.listIterator();
Rectangle rectangle1 = li.next(); //1st element in list
Rectangle rectangle2 = li.next(); //2nd element in list
Rectangle rectangle3 = li.next(); //3rd element in list

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5
 Iterating through a List
We can use a while loop to iterate through elements in the list
ListIterator<Rectangle> li = rectangles.listIterator();
while (li.hasNext())
{
Rectangle current = li.next();
System.out.println("Area is:" + current.area());
System.out.println("Perimeter is:" + current.perimeter());
}

Results:
Area is:6.0 – this is the first object
Perimeter is:10.0
Area is:12.0 – this is the second object
Perimeter is:14.0
Area is:20.0 – this is the third object
Perimeter is:18.0

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Enhanced for loop

In IPRG001, you used for loops like this

for(initialisation;exit condition;increment)

• Semi colon separation

Java also allows for-each loops like this

for (element:collection)

• Colon separation

For-each loops should be used where possible

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For-each Loop Example

You can also use a for-each loop for an array

int[] numbers = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10};

for (int item : numbers)
{
System.out.println("Count is: " + item);
}

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6
For-each Object Array Example

Customer[] customers = {new Customer(”Peter”),

new Customer(“Bill”) };
for (Customer customer : customers)
{
System.out.println("Customer is: " + customer.getName());
}

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For-each LinkedList Example

LinkedList<Customer> customers =
new LinkedList<Customer>();
customers.add(new Customer(" Peter "));
customers.add(new Customer(" Bill "));

for (Customer customer : customers)

{
System.out.println("Customer is: " + customer.getName());
}

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Loop Exits

• continue – jump to
Loop the end of the loop
• break – exit the loop
Exits • return – exit the loop
and the method

In most cases, it is better to have a loop end naturally using the

condition. It is more readable. Sometimes we will use a return, if
we find what we want and don’t need to keep iterating.

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Enum
Is an enumerated data type, that is, you can declare a list of
constants that the runtime will treat as numbers.

Example:

public enum Direction { NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, WEST }

enum inherits from the Enum class in the API, so you

cannot inherit from any other class.

An enum class has a private constructor, that cannot be
invoked, the runtime uses it to create the constants.

enum is a type of singleton (only allows 1 instance at any
time)
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Simple Enum Example

Declare a private datatype

private enum Days { SUNDAY, MONDAY, TUESDAY,

WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, FRIDAY, SATURDAY};

Declare an attribute to hold the value

private Days today;

Set the value of the attribute
today = Days.SUNDAY;

Test the value
if (today == Days.SUNDAY)

Iterate through each enum value
for (Days day : Days.values())

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Complex Enum

An enum is a class, so you can add methods and attributes to it.

Each field can have values for each attribute.

public enum Suit

{
DIAMONDS("Diamond"),
CLUBS("Club"),
HEARTS("Heart"),
SPADES("Spade"); //notice the semicolon here

private final String name;

private Suit(String name) { this.name = name; }
public String getName() { return name; }
}

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Complex Enum

Here we have an attribute called name, each field in the enum
has a value for name that is set when the constructor is called
by the runtime.
– ie HEARTS:name has a value of “Hearts”.

The public method getName() can be called to retrieve the
attribute value for each field.

for (Suit suit : Suit.values())

{
System.out.println(suit.getName());
}

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Collections

A collection is an object that groups multiple elements

together.

A collection is used to store, retrieve and manipulate data

elements of the group.

A LinkedList holds a collection of objects

LinkedList<Rectangle> rectangles = new LinkedList<Rectangle>();

When we declare <Rectangle>, we are declaring the type of

collection the LinkedList will hold.

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Key Concepts
Summary

A list can be one way or two
way

LinkedList implements a two
way list

A ListIterator retrieves an
object from a list

Enhanced for loop
for(element : collection)

An enum can be simple or
complex

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