Vectors in Java

Vectors (the java.util.Vector class) are commonly used instead of arrays, because they expand automatically when new data is added to them. The Java 2 Collections API introduced the similar ArrayList data structure. ArrayLists are unsynchronized and therefore faster than Vectors, but less secure in a multithreaded environment. The Vector class was changed in Java 2 to add the additional methods supported by ArrayList.

Vectors can hold only Objects and not primitive types (eg, int). If you want to put a primitive type in a Vector, put it inside an object i.e, Wrapping
Creation of Vectors
Import either import java.util.Vector; or import java.util.*;. Vectors are implemented with an array, and when that array is full and an additional element is added, a new array must be allocated. Because it takes time to create a bigger array and copy the elements from the old array to the new array, it is a little faster to create a Vector with a size that it will commonly be when full. Of course, if you knew the final size, you could simply use an array. However, for non-critical sections of code programmers typically don't specify an initial size.
A Vector is can be created with the help three constructors

1. Vector(): creates a vector with default size and grow size ie., 10
2. Vector(int size): creates a vector with specified size and default grow size as 10.
3. Vector(int size, inr growsize): creates a vector with specified size specified grow size as 10.

Eg:
Vector  V1=new Vector ();
Vector  V2=new Vector(3);
Vector  V3=new Vector (5,2);

Benefits of Vector over Array

• Vector stores different type of items
• Vector can be grown at run time
• Vector can be shrinked run time

Methods of Vector class

• int capacity(): This method returns the current capacity of the vector.
• int size(): It returns the current size of the vector.
• void addElement(Object element): It inserts the element at the end of the Vector.
• void setElementAt(Object element, int index): It updates the element of specifed index with the given element.
• boolean removeElement(Object element): Removes the specifed element from vector.
• boolean removeElementAt(int pos): Removes the element at the specified position from vector.
• boolean removeAllElements(): Removes All elements from vector.
• Object get(int index): Returns the element at the specified index.
• boolean isEmpty(): This method returns true if Vector doesn’t have any element.
• int  indexOf(Object element): returns the first occurrence of the specified object in the Vector
• int  lastIndexOf(Object element): returns the last occurrence of the specified object in the Vector
• void copyInto(Object [] array): copies all the elements form the vector to an object array.
• void  trimToSize():Trims the capacity of this vector to be the vector's current size. 
• void setSize(int size): It changes the existing size with the specified size.

Printing elements in the Vector
Elements of vector can be printed in many ways. Most commonly used methods are

• Using a for loop

for(int i=0; i<v.size();i++)
System.out.println(v.get(i));

• Using a for each loop

for(Object  value : v)
System.out.println(value);

• Directly printing the vector  

System.out.println(v);