[java] Variable length (Dynamic) Arrays in Java

I was wondering how to initialise an integer array such that it's size and values change through out the execution of my program, any suggestions?

Arrays are fixed size once instantiated. You can use a List instead.

Autoboxing make a List usable similar to an array, you can put simply int-values into it:

List<Integer> list = new ArrayList<Integer>();
list.add(1);
list.add(2);
list.add(3);

Simple code for dynamic array. In below code then array will become full of size we copy all element to new double size array(variable size array).sample code is below 

public class DynamicArray {
 static   int []increaseSizeOfArray(int []arr){
          int []brr=new int[(arr.length*2)];
          for (int i = 0; i < arr.length; i++) {
         brr[i]=arr[i];     
          }
          return brr;
     }
public static void main(String[] args) {
     int []arr=new int[5];
      for (int i = 0; i < 11; i++) {
          if (i<arr.length) {
              arr[i]=i+100;
          }
          else {
              arr=increaseSizeOfArray(arr);
              arr[i]=i+100;
          }        
     }

for (int i = 0; i < arr.length; i++) {
     System.out.println("arr="+arr[i]);
}    
}

}

Source : How to make dynamic array

Arrays in Java are of fixed size. What you'd need is an ArrayList, one of a number of extremely valuable Collections available in Java.

Instead of

Integer[] ints = new Integer[x]

you use

List<Integer> ints = new ArrayList<Integer>();

Then to change the list you use ints.add(y) and ints.remove(z) amongst many other handy methods you can find in the appropriate Javadocs.

I strongly recommend studying the Collections classes available in Java as they are very powerful and give you a lot of builtin functionality that Java-newbies tend to try to rewrite themselves unnecessarily.

You can't change the size of an array. You can, however, create a new array with the right size and copy the data from the old array to the new.

But your best option is to use IntList from jacarta commons. (here)

It works just like a List but takes less space and is more efficient than that, because it stores int's instead of storing wrapper objects over int's (that's what the Integer class is).

I disagree with the previous answers suggesting ArrayList, because ArrayList is not a Dynamic Array but a List backed by an array. The difference is that you cannot do the following:

ArrayList list = new ArrayList(4);
list.put(3,"Test");

It will give you an IndexOutOfBoundsException because there is no element at this position yet even though the backing array would permit such an addition. So you need to use a custom extendable Array implementation like suggested by @randy-lance

1. It is recommend to use List to deal with small scale size.

2. If you have a huge number of numbers, NEVER use List and autoboxing,

   List< Integer> list

For every single int, a new Integer is auto created. You will find it getting slow when the size of the list increase. These Integers are unnecessary objects. In this case, to use a estimated size would be better,

int[] array = new int[ESTIMATED_SIZE];

How about using a List instead? For example, ArrayList<integer>

I answered this question and no you do not need an arraylist or any other thing this was an assignment and I completed it so yes arrays can increase in size. Here is the link How to use Java Dynamic Array and here is the link for my question which i answered Java Dynamic arrays