I've done some research before posting this, but I still haven't quite grasped it yet. Basically I have 4 items in my Arraylist:
Bananas, Oranges, Apples and Pineapples
ArrayList<String> fruitList = new ArrayList<>();
addItems(){
fruitList.add("Banana");
fruitList.add("Oranges");
fruitList.add("Apples");
fruitList.add("Pineapples");
}
and I am trying to remain only with one. This is what I've tried so far:
for (int i = 0; i <= fruitList.size() - 1; i++) {
fruitList.remove(i);
}
from my understanding the code above should remove 3 items, however I get 2 items; (Oranges and Pineapples).
Kindly help me understand this in achieving the desired result.
The problem here is that the index goes up from the beginning of the list, while the size of the list is shrinking:
for (int i = 0; i <= fruitList.size() - 1; i++) {
fruitList.remove(i);
}
Not only it's confusing which elements get removed,
it's also very inefficient to remove elements from the middle of a list like this.
It would be better to use an index going from the end, as the other answer suggests.
A compact way to achieve the same is to use a sub-list and clear it:
fruitList.subList(1, fruitList.size()).clear();
System.out.println(fruitList);
// prints [Banana]
To remove all the items but the 1st:
for (int i = fruitList.size() - 1; i > 0 ; i--) {
fruitList.remove(i);
}
iterate backwards so the index is in sync with the changing size of the list.
If you do this:
int size = fruitList.size();
for (int i = 0; i < size - 1; i++) {
fruitList.remove(0);
}
you will remove all but the last, because at each iteration you remove the 1st item until there is only 1, which will not be removed.
Related
If have a workflow that removes elements of a List by a certain criteria. However certain items are skipped? Why is this happening?
List<Integer> listWithAge = new ArrayList<>();
int randomNumber = 100;
for (int i = 0; i < randomNumber; i++) {
listWithAge.add(i);
}
// this is my loop
for (int i = 0; i < listWithAge.size(); i++) {
System.out.println(i);
if ((listWithAge.get(i) % 3) == 2) listWithAge.remove(i);
}
Above code is my loop. I replaced my condition with something simpler. If I run this code my second loop only runs for 67 turns instead of 100.
It is problematic to iterate over a list and remove elements while iterating over it.
If you think about how the computer has to reconcile it, it makes sense...
Here's a thought experiment for you to go through.
If you have a list that is size 10 and you want to remove elements 1, 5, and 9 then you would think maybe the following would work:
List<String> listOfThings = ...some list with 10 things in it...;
list.remove(0);
list.remove(4);
list.remove(8);
However, after the first remove command, the list is only size 9.. Then after the second command, it's size has become 8. At this point, it hardly even makes sense to do list.remove(8) anymore because you're looking at an 8-element list and the largest index is 7.
You can also see now that the 2nd command didn't even remove the element now that you wanted.
If you want to keep this style of "remove as I go" syntax, the more appropriate way is to use Iterators. Here's an SO that talks about it and shows you the syntax you would need (see the question). It's easy to read up on elsewhere too.
How Iterator's remove method actually remove an object
Skipping a value would be the result of your list getting out of sync with your loop index because the list is reduced in size. This causes you to hop over some locations since the reduction in size affects future locations that have not been reached.
So the first thing you could do is simply correct the synchronization by decrementing i when you remove a value from the list. This will keep index at the same spot as the list shifts "left" caused by the removal.
for (int i = 0; i < listWithAge.size(); i++) {
if ((listWithAge.get(i) % 3) == 2) listWithAge.remove(i--);
}
The other option is to loop thru the list backwards.
for (int i = listWithAge.size()-1; i >= 0; i--) {
if ((listWithAge.get(i) % 3) == 2) {
listWithAge.remove(i);
}
}
This way, no values should be skipped since the removing of the element does affect the loop index's future positions relative to the changing size of the list.
But the best way would be to use an iterator as has already been mentioned by
Atmas
As a side note, I recommend you always use blocks {} even for single statements as I did above in the if block. It will save you some serious debugging time in the future when you decide you need to add additional statements and then wonder why things are no longer working.
And deleting like this from a list is very expensive, especially for large lists. I would suggest that if you don't have duplicate values, you use a Set. Otherwise, instead of deleting matching values, add the non-matching to a second list.
List<Integer> listWithAge = new ArrayList<>();
int randomNumber = 100;
for (int i = 0; i < randomNumber; i++) {
listWithAge.add(i);
}
// this is my loop
List<Integer> itemsToBeDeleted = new ArrayList<>();
for (int i = 0; i < listWithAge.size(); i++) {
System.out.println(i);
if ((listWithAge.get(i) % 3) == 2) {
itemsToBeDeleted.add(i);
}
//delete all outside the loop
//deleting inside the loop messes the indexing of the array
listWithAge.removeAll(itemsToBeDeleted);
I have a small problem, I want to go through a list and compare two objects of the array. Each object has 3 elements, I use a StringTokenizer to be able to remove the separator, so each object has 3 elements. I would like to know how to make a method that gets the third element of each object and compare them. And if that element is less than another delete that element and the 2 before it.
I tried to make them with an iterator but I wouldn't know very well that it started from the 3 element and increased the position by 3.
Iterator<Integer> it = lisM.iterator();
int num;
while (it.hasNext()){
num = it.next();
System.out.println(num);
}
Is --> if, I was wrong to put it in the picture
This only answers part of your question. I could not understand the question completely, please edit it and I can edit my answer.
You should not remove items from a list whilst in a for loop, therefore you can, for example, create another boolean list with the same size divided by 3 and just fill it with true Booleans then set the position divided by 3 to false if you want to delete the three items. Then you can create a new list, iterate over the boolean list and add 3 "Objects" which are actually Strings (thanks #JB Nizet) at a time, every time the boolean list element is true. When it is false you just don't add the elements and by doing so you are practically deleting the two elements before that element together with that element.
You casted a String to an int, that does not work you have to parse the Strings.
I corrected some of your code and added the boolean list here:
ArrayList<String> lisM = new ArrayList<>(); // here I initialise the list as an array list with strings.
ArrayList<Boolean> booleanList = new ArrayList<>();
for (int i = 0; i < lisM.size() / 3; i++) {
booleanList.add(true);
}
for(int i = 3; i < lisM.size();i+=3) {
int m = Integer.parseInt(lisM.get(i)); // here I changed the casting to parsing and moved it out of the for loop, there is no need to initialize it again every single time since you do not change it in the second for loop.
for (int j = 6; j < lisM.size(); j += 6) {
int m1 = Integer.parseInt(lisM.get(j));// here I changed the casting to parsing again.
if (m > m1) { // this makes no sense here because you are going over all of the elements of the list and comparing them to all of them. But I kept it here for the sake of example.
booleanList.set(i/3,false);
}
// if you want to go over the whole list you will have to clear the list and start over again for every element.
}
}
and here is how you could create the new list without the elements you do not want:
ArrayList<String> newLisM = new ArrayList<>();
for (int i = 0; i <booleanList.size(); i++) {
if(booleanList.get(i))
for (int j = 0; j < 3; j++) {
newLisM.add(lisM.get(i+j));
}
}
for(int i = 0; i < bag.length; i++)
{
if(bag[i].equals(a))
{
tmp = bag[i];
bag[i] = bag[bag.length-1];
bag[bag.length-1] = tmp;
numElements--;
break;
}
}
The goal of this is to find an object in the array and then remove it? is it possible??
Changing the length of an array is not possible. Recall that array is a static data structure whose size is determined before hand. Increasing or decreasing is not supported in this data structure. The fact that one has to increase or decrease the size depending on the usecase means that they have picked up the wrong data structure. They should perhaps go with an ArrayList.
Anyway, coming back to your question, you can simulate the 'size decrease' by maintaining a variable which you let track the array index and decrease the size of this variable. This lets you give the impression of shrinking the array.
The code you have provided does the same. Note however, that you should be using this modified index to track the contents of your array.
for(int i = 0; i < bag.length; i++)
{
if(bag[i].equals(a))
{
tmp = bag[i];
bag[i] = bag[bag.length-1];
bag[bag.length-1] = tmp;
numElements--;
break;
}
}
Whenever a particular bag at a given index equals to the item under question i.e., 'a', we swap elements so that the current bag element to be removed moves to the last and also we reduce the size of our new index - numElements by 1 to simulate this.
If you have the full code with you, please consider adding the following snippet at the end of that program to understand this more:
// Simulation of the array shrinking.
for(int i = 0; i < numElements; i++)
{
System.out.println( bag[i] );
}
// Movement of uninteresting elements to the end of the array.
for(int i = 0; i < bag.length; i++)
{
System.out.println( bag[i] );
}
It's not possible to change the length of an array. You can overwrite the element you wish to remove with the last element of the array and then copy the first bag.length - 1 elements of your array to a new array whose length is bag.length - 1.
for(int i = 0; i < bag.length; i++) {
if(bag[i].equals(a)) {
bag[i] = bag[bag.length-1];
bag = Arrays.copyOf (bag, bag.length - 1);
break;
}
}
public static String[] removeElements(String[] input) {
List<String> result = new ArrayList<String>();
String deleteValue = "somevalue";
for(String item : input)
if(!deleteValue .equals(item))
result.add(item);
return result.toArray(input);
}
This is one method you can fit this into your program.
You cannot decrease the size of an array. okay no problem! you can create your own data structure which supports that right?
Now, create a class named say MyArray with functions like increaseLenght(int) and decreseLength(int). Try it if you want to, will be fun for sure..
You cannot reduce the size of an array. Arrays are fixed length. What you can do is have a variable that indicates how many entries of the array you are using. This is what you are doing with numElements. The standard class ArrayList is implemented like this. The data is kept in an array and a private field size is used. With an ArrayList, when you remove an element, all the elements to the right are shifted left. However I also like your idea.
I would suggest 2 changes.
Make the last element null instead. If you are removing the element, why does it still need to be in the array?
Use numElements - 1 rather than bag.length-1 as the array could be bigger.
With these changes it becomes:
for(int i = 0; i < bag.length; i++)
{
if(bag[i].equals(a))
{
bag[i] = bag[numElements-1];
bag[numElements-1] = null;
numElements--;
break;
}
}
In java programming:
I have something along the lines of
ArrayList<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
int listSize = list.size();
for(int x = 0; x< listSize; x++){
list.remove(x);
listSize = list.size();
}
will this work well enough? or will the for loop keep running. Thanks!
I'm a bit concerned at what you're attempting to do here. Any time someone wants to remove items from a collection in a loop without using an Iterator, alarms usually go off.
So, to answer the question as stated: If you change your loop invariant, then you'll get some funky behavior. This is why it's often called an "invariant"; you don't want to change it. You're certainly welcome to, but you're playing with fire here.
But, let's assume that we have a list of 5 elements in it and we execute your code as is.
List<String> stringList = Arrays.asList("word", "another word", "let's go", "keep it up", "get moving");
int length = stringList.size();
for(int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
System.out.println(stringList.remove(i));
length = stringList.size();
}
System.out.println("done");
If you're expecting it to print out every word in the list, then think again. It will skip every element because we are changing the content of the list while iterating over it. When deleting elements from an ArrayList, the underlying implementation will shift over elements to the left in where it was deleted. So, if you delete from position 0, every element now lives to the left of its original position (so element 1 is now element 0).
A quick run-through:
First iteration, i = 0; "word" is removed. Size is changed to 4, i increases to 1.
Second iteration, i = 1; "let's go" is removed. Size is changed to 3, i increases to 2.
Third iteration, i = 2; "get moving" is removed. SIze is changed to 2, i increases to 3.
No further iteration happens as the condition is not satisfiable.
If you want to cleanly remove all items from the collection without printing them out, then ArrayList#clear() is what you're looking for. If you want to remove elements one at a time, then use an Iterator instead:
List<String> stringList = new ArrayList<>(Arrays.asList("word", "another word", "let's go", "keep it up", "get moving"));
for(Iterator<String> stringIterator = stringList.iterator(); stringIterator.hasNext(); ) {
System.out.println(stringIterator.next());
stringIterator.remove();
}
System.out.println("done");
The loop won't keep running and it will end without any exception. But the result may not what you expect.
Besides "ArrayList#clear()" or Iterator way to remove all elements from one array. You can also try below codes, just remove "x++" from your loop condition.
ArrayList<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
int listSize = list.size();
for(int x = 0; x< listSize;){
list.remove(x);
listSize = list.size();
}
Why not do it in a "while" loop?
ArrayList<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
int listSize = list.size();
while(list.size() != 0){
list.remove(x);
}
Technically, the computer science course would likely tell you to do it something like this:
public void solve() {
ArrayList<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
Iterator iter = list.iterator();
while(iter.hasNext()) {
System.out.println("Next value is: " + iter.next());
iter.remove();
}
}
I got a weird problem.
I thought this would cost me few minutes, but I am struggling for few hours now...
Here is what I got:
for (int i = 0; i < size; i++){
if (data.get(i).getCaption().contains("_Hardi")){
data.remove(i);
}
}
The data is the ArrayList.
In the ArrayList I got some strings (total 14 or so), and 9 of them, got the name _Hardi in it.
And with the code above I want to remove them.
If I replace data.remove(i); with a System.out.println then it prints out something 9 times, what is good, because _Hardi is in the ArrayList 9 times.
But when I use data.remove(i); then it doesn't remove all 9, but only a few.
I did some tests and I also saw this:
When I rename the Strings to:
Hardi1
Hardi2
Hardi3
Hardi4
Hardi5
Hardi6
Then it removes only the on-even numbers (1, 3, 5 and so on).
He is skipping 1 all the time, but can't figure out why.
How to fix this? Or maybe another way to remove them?
The Problem here is you are iterating from 0 to size and inside the loop you are deleting items. Deleting the items will reduce the size of the list which will fail when you try to access the indexes which are greater than the effective size(the size after the deleted items).
There are two approaches to do this.
Delete using iterator if you do not want to deal with index.
for (Iterator<Object> it = data.iterator(); it.hasNext();) {
if (it.next().getCaption().contains("_Hardi")) {
it.remove();
}
}
Else, delete from the end.
for (int i = size-1; i >= 0; i--){
if (data.get(i).getCaption().contains("_Hardi")){
data.remove(i);
}
}
You shouldn't remove items from a List while you iterate over it. Instead, use Iterator.remove() like:
for (Iterator<Object> it = list.iterator(); it.hasNext();) {
if ( condition is true ) {
it.remove();
}
}
Every time you remove an item, you are changing the index of the one in front of it (so when you delete list[1], list[2] becomes list[1], hence the skip.
Here's a really easy way around it: (count down instead of up)
for(int i = list.size() - 1; i>=0; i--)
{
if(condition...)
list.remove(i);
}
Its because when you remove an element from a list, the list's elements move up. So if you remove first element ie at index 0 the element at index 1 will be shifted to index 0 but your loop counter will keep increasing in every iteration. so instead you of getting the updated 0th index element you get 1st index element. So just decrease the counter by one everytime you remove an element from your list.
You can use the below code to make it work fine :
for (int i = 0; i < data.size(); i++){
if (data.get(i).getCaption().contains("_Hardi")){
data.remove(i);
i--;
}
}
It makes perfect sense if you think it through. Say you have a list [A, B, C]. The first pass through the loop, i == 0. You see element A and then remove it, so the list is now [B, C], with element 0 being B. Now you increment i at the end of the loop, so you're looking at list[1] which is C.
One solution is to decrement i whenever you remove an item, so that it "canceles out" the subsequent increment. A better solution, as matt b points out above, is to use an Iterator<T> which has a built-in remove() function.
Speaking generally, it's a good idea, when facing a problem like this, to bring out a piece of paper and pretend you're the computer -- go through each step of the loop, writing down all of the variables as you go. That would have made the "skipping" clear.
I don't understand why this solution is the best for most of the people.
for (Iterator<Object> it = data.iterator(); it.hasNext();) {
if (it.next().getCaption().contains("_Hardi")) {
it.remove();
}
}
Third argument is empty, because have been moved to next line. Moreover it.next() not only increment loop's variable but also is using to get data. For me use for loop is misleading. Why you don't using while?
Iterator<Object> it = data.iterator();
while (it.hasNext()) {
Object obj = it.next();
if (obj.getCaption().contains("_Hardi")) {
it.remove();
}
}
Because your index isn't good anymore once you delete a value
Moreover you won't be able to go to size since if you remove one element, the size as changed.
You may use an iterator to achieve that.
for (Iterator<Object> it = data.iterator(); it.hasNext();) {
if ( it.getCaption().contains("_Hardi")) {
it.remove(); // performance is low O(n)
}
}
If your remove operation is required much on list. Its better you use LinkedList which gives better performance Big O(1) (roughly).
Where in ArrayList performance is O(n) (roughly) . So impact is very high on remove operation.
It is late but it might work for someone.
Iterator<YourObject> itr = yourList.iterator();
// remove the objects from list
while (itr.hasNext())
{
YourObject object = itr.next();
if (Your Statement) // id == 0
{
itr.remove();
}
}
In addition to the existing answers, you can use a regular while loop with a conditional increment:
int i = 0;
while (i < data.size()) {
if (data.get(i).getCaption().contains("_Hardi"))
data.remove(i);
else i++;
}
Note that data.size() must be called every time in the loop condition, otherwise you'll end up with an IndexOutOfBoundsException, since every item removed alters your list's original size.
This happens because by deleting the elements you modify the index of an ArrayList.
import java.util.ArrayList;
public class IteratorSample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
ArrayList<Integer> al = new ArrayList<Integer>();
al.add(1);
al.add(2);
al.add(3);
al.add(4);
System.out.println("before removal!!");
displayList(al);
for(int i = al.size()-1; i >= 0; i--){
if(al.get(i)==4){
al.remove(i);
}
}
System.out.println("after removal!!");
displayList(al);
}
private static void displayList(ArrayList<Integer> al) {
for(int a:al){
System.out.println(a);
}
}
}
output:
before removal!!
1
2
3
4
after removal!!
1
2
3
There is an easier way to solve this problem without creating a new iterator object. Here is the concept. Suppose your arrayList contains a list of names:
names = [James, Marshall, Susie, Audrey, Matt, Carl];
To remove everything from Susie forward, simply get the index of Susie and assign it to a new variable:
int location = names.indexOf(Susie);//index equals 2
Now that you have the index, tell java to count the number of times you want to remove values from the arrayList:
for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) { //remove Susie through Carl
names.remove(names.get(location));//remove the value at index 2
}
Every time the loop value runs, the arrayList is reduced in length. Since you have set an index value and are counting the number of times to remove values, you're all set. Here is an example of output after each pass through:
[2]
names = [James, Marshall, Susie, Audrey, Matt, Carl];//first pass to get index and i = 0
[2]
names = [James, Marshall, Audrey, Matt, Carl];//after first pass arrayList decreased and Audrey is now at index 2 and i = 1
[2]
names = [James, Marshall, Matt, Carl];//Matt is now at index 2 and i = 2
[2]
names = [James, Marshall, Carl];//Carl is now at index 3 and i = 3
names = [James, Marshall,]; //for loop ends
Here is a snippet of what your final method may look like:
public void remove_user(String name) {
int location = names.indexOf(name); //assign the int value of name to location
if (names.remove(name)==true) {
for (int i = 0; i < 7; i++) {
names.remove(names.get(location));
}//end if
print(name + " is no longer in the Group.");
}//end method
This is a common problem while using Arraylists and it happens due to the fact that the length (size) of an Arraylist can change. While deleting, the size changes too; so after the first iteration, your code goes haywire. Best advice is either to use Iterator or to loop from the back, I'll recommend the backword loop though because I think it's less complex and it still works fine with numerous elements:
//Let's decrement!
for(int i = size-1; i >= 0; i--){
if (data.get(i).getCaption().contains("_Hardi")){
data.remove(i);
}
}
Still your old code, only looped differently!
I hope this helps...
Merry coding!!!