Hey Guys,
I'm looking for a little more insite, I've always used arrays and vectors for what I'm about to explain, but on exploration of a couple more useful methods. I discovered there were a couple more data types that might be used, maybe someone could offer a little insite on the appropriate ussage of some of these data types.

What I'm doing is taking groups of strings(dynamic from a database and not the same amount in each group) and then combining each element of each group to form unique sentances. So What i'm doing currently is dumping each group into a 2-d String[][] array. then using for loops to iterate and combine each combination into sentances. What I'm wondering is using some of the other datatypes LinkedList, ArrayList, Vector, collections.synchronizedList, Seralized Form and I saw a couple others, would any of these perhaps have methods that could do some of the work for me and which would be the best to use and why. Any insite would be injoyable.

i.e. (who, what) (is a, could be a) (dog, cat, mouse, house)
Thanks
J

ArrayList and LinkedList each offer one of two incompatible properties:

ArrayList:
* has random access (constant-time access to arbitrary element in the middle)
* but is inefficient at insertion/deletion in the middle of the list (needs to shift everything after)

LinkedList:
* has no random access (needs to iterate through to reach arbitrary element)
* but has constant-time insertion/deletion in the middle of the list

Vector is just an earlier synchronized equivalent of ArrayList. Besides Lists, there are also other data structures like Sets and Maps that serve different purposes. See the Collections framework

Spooon is right - definitely check out the "Collections" tutorial on Sun's web page.

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutor...tro/index.html

You can also get there from Sun's "Really Big Java Index", which itself is a useful resource:

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutor...ml#collections

As far as books, I'd strongly suggest:

Thinking in Java: Bruce Eckel
http://www.bookpool.com/sm/0131872486

Head First Java, Kathy Bates/Sierra Miller:
http://www.bookpool.com/sm/0596009208

'Hope that helps .. PSM

PS:
The main thing to remember about Java "Vector" is: "Dont' use them! Use "ArrayList" instead!"

Great references, man there is always more to learn with Java.

Thanks
J