Array expand doesn't always work?

Processing Beginners
1

The example given for ‘expand’ works alright, but the code below is the example for loadStrings, with expand added. Why doesn’t it expand the array?

String[] lines = loadStrings("list.txt");
println("there are " + lines.length + " lines");
for (int i = 0 ; i < lines.length; i++) {
  println(lines[i]);
}
println(lines.length); 
expand(lines, 20);
println(lines.length);

Output:

there are 5 lines
apple
orange
banana
pear
apricot
5
5

1 Like
2

Java arrays can’t have its length changed once created. :coffee:

What expand() and other similar functions do is create another array w/ a diff. length, copy the contents of the original array to the new 1, and then return the new 1. :face_with_monocle:

So we do need to store the newly returned array to some variable. :flushed:

That’s why an ArrayList, or in your particular case a StringList, is a much better choice as a dynamic length container: :bulb:

  1. Processing.org/reference/ArrayList.html
  2. Processing.org/reference/StringList.html
  3. Forum.Processing.org/two/discussion/8080/why-use-arraylist-instead-of-array-with-append
1 Like
3

Yes, thanks, just realised I should have ’ lines = expand(lines, 20); ’

I’ve used ArrayList lots of times, it’s very good.