while selecting Vector or Arraylist, it depends on 2 factors...whether our collection should be threadsafe/fast access ie performance.
if we go with threadsafe, it is better to go with Vector, Vector is synchronized ie all methods in the vector are synchronized.so when synchronized only one thread can access the list.
In case of Arraylist, this is not threadsafe ie not synchronized...so when it is not synchronized there is no limit in case of threads also.
In general..if we just accessing(read) the list , it would be suggestable to go with arraylist.in case of add/update of list its better to go with vector, it provides thread safe..
Thanks,
Venkat.