Java Arrays how to add elements at the beginning

Question

I need to add elements to an ArrayList queue whatever, but when I call the function to add an element, I want it to add the element at the beginning of the array (so it has the lowest index) and if the array has 10 elements adding a new results in deleting the oldest element (the one with the highest index).

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Answer 1

I think the implement should be easy, but considering about the efficiency, you should use LinkedList but not ArrayList as the container. You can refer to the following code:

import java.util.LinkedList;
import java.util.List;

public class DataContainer {

    private List<Integer> list;

    int length = 10;
    public void addDataToArrayList(int data){
        list.add(0, data);
        if(list.size()>10){
            list.remove(length);
        }
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        DataContainer comp = new DataContainer();
        comp.list = new LinkedList<Integer>();

        int cycleCount = 100000000;

        for(int i = 0; i < cycleCount; i ++){
            comp.addDataToArrayList(i);
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

Java LinkedList provides both the addFirst(E e) and the push(E e) method that add an element to the front of the list.

https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/util/LinkedList.html#addFirst(E)

Answer 3

import java.util.*:
public class Logic {
  List<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
  public static void main(String...args) {
  Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
    Logic obj = new Logic();
      for (int i=0;i<=20;i++) {
        String string = input.nextLine();
        obj.myLogic(string);
        obj.printList();
      }
 }
 public void myLogic(String strObj) {
   if (this.list.size()>=10) {
      this.list.remove(this.list.size()-1);
   } else {
     list.add(strObj); 
   }
 }
 public void printList() {
 System.out.print(this.list);
 }
}

Answer 4

You can use

public List<E> addToListStart(List<E> list, E obj){
list.add(0,obj);
return (List<E>)list;

}

Change E with your datatype

If deleting the oldest element is necessary then you can add:

list.remove(list.size()-1); 

before return statement. Otherwise list will add your object at beginning and also retain oldest element.

This will delete last element in list.

Answer 5

You can use list methods, remove and add

list.add(lowestIndex, element);
list.remove(highestIndex, element);

Answer 6

List has the method add(int, E), so you can use:

list.add(0, yourObject);

Afterwards you can delete the last element with:

if(list.size() > 10)
    list.remove(list.size() - 1);

However, you might want to rethink your requirements or use a different data structure, like a Queue

EDIT

Maybe have a look at Apache's CircularFifoQueue:

CircularFifoQueue is a first-in first-out queue with a fixed size that replaces its oldest element if full.

Just initialize it with you maximum size:

CircularFifoQueue queue = new CircularFifoQueue(10);