How to handle UnsupportedOperationException while using lists

Hi all,

I have a String array in my code which I will be converting to a list using Arrays.asList at some point of time.

After convertion, I will not be able to add to it or remove any element from it. When I do this, I get UnsupportedOperationException.

Whereas when I create a new list using java.util.List I do not face such problem.

Does Arrays.asList not return a util.List object? Or can't we do any operations on such a lsit created by Arrays.asList?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

Vinny

Arrays.asList() returns a Read only List and hence you will not be able to modify its contents. A related thread here which discusses this in detail

Vinny Bhat wrote:Does Arrays.asList not return a util.List object? Or can't we do any operations on such a lsit created by Arrays.asList?

The latter; and if you think about it, its quite correct. You can't dynamically extend an array, so it would be kind of silly to allow you to add to a List that's based on an array.

If you want to create a List that you can add to, you could do something like:
List<X> fromArray = new ArrayList<X>( Arrays.asList(myArray) );

Winston

Winston Gutkowski wrote:

Vinny Bhat wrote:Does Arrays.asList not return a util.List object? Or can't we do any operations on such a lsit created by Arrays.asList?

The latter; and if you think about it, its quite correct. You can't dynamically extend an array, so it would be kind of silly to allow you to add to a List that's based on an array.

If you want to create a List that you can add to, you could do something like:
List<X> fromArray = new ArrayList<X>( Arrays.asList(myArray) );

Winston

Thanks a lot Winston, that really makes sense. Actually the requirement was such that at the persistence layer, the arrays are used and at the view layer it is changed to list and along with the contents of the array, we have to add some more elements to the list. That was the reason I was trying to add to the list once it is converted from array.

Mohamed Sanaulla wrote:Arrays.asList() returns a Read only List and hence you will not be able to modify its contents. A related thread here which discusses this in detail

Thanks Mohamed for the other post mentioned,that really helped.

Vinny

Mohamed Sanaulla wrote:Arrays.asList() returns a Read only List and hence you will not be able to modify its contents.

Not completely true. It's almost immutable. You can't add or remove elements, but you can still replace elements.

Rob Spoor wrote:

Mohamed Sanaulla wrote:Arrays.asList() returns a Read only List and hence you will not be able to modify its contents.

Not completely true. It's almost immutable. You can't add or remove elements, but you can still replace elements.

Rob,

I am new to these concepts. Can you please elaborate with an example? Thanks for your time

Vinny Bhat wrote:

Rob Spoor wrote:

Mohamed Sanaulla wrote:Arrays.asList() returns a Read only List and hence you will not be able to modify its contents.

Not completely true. It's almost immutable. You can't add or remove elements, but you can still replace elements.

I am new to these concepts. Can you please elaborate with an example? Thanks for your time

Arrays.asList(myArray).set(0, someNewValue);

Winston

Winston Gutkowski wrote:

Vinny Bhat wrote:

Rob Spoor wrote:

Mohamed Sanaulla wrote:Arrays.asList() returns a Read only List and hence you will not be able to modify its contents.

Not completely true. It's almost immutable. You can't add or remove elements, but you can still replace elements.

I am new to these concepts. Can you please elaborate with an example? Thanks for your time

Arrays.asList(myArray).set(0, someNewValue);

Winston

Thanks Winston!

Vinny Bhat wrote:Thanks Winston!

You're welcome. It should be noted that the above could throw an Exception (if myArray was empty).

Winston

Winston Gutkowski wrote:
You're welcome. It should be noted that the above could throw an Exception (if myArray was empty).

Winston

Ya I noticed this during the implementation when I tried this fro my sample code. Thanks again!