C# Generics Recipes—Replacing the ArrayList with Its Generic Counterpart

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Contents 1 4.4 Replacing the ArrayList with Its Generic Counterpart 1.1 Problem 1.2 Solution 1.3 Discussion 1.4 See Also

4.4 Replacing the ArrayList with Its Generic Counterpart

Problem

You want to enhance the performance of your application as well as make the code easier to work with by replacing all ArrayList objects with the generic version. This is imperative when you find that structures or other value types are being stored in these data structures, resulting in boxing/unboxing operations.

Solution

Replace all occurrences of the System.Collection.ArrayList class with the more efficient generic System.Collections.Generic.List class.

Here is a simple example of using a System.Collections.ArrayList object:

public static void UseNonGenericArrayList( )
{
   // Create and populate an ArrayList.
   ArrayList numbers = new ArrayList( );
   numbers.Add(1); // Causes a boxing operation to occur
   numbers.Add(2); // Causes a boxing operation to occur
 
   // Display all integers in the ArrayList.
   // Causes an unboxing operation to occur on each iteration
   foreach (int i in numbers)
   {
      Console.WriteLine(i);
   }
   numbers.Clear( );
}

Here is that same code using a System.Collections.Generic.List object:

public static void UseGenericList( )
{
   // Create and populate a List.
   List<int> numbers = new List<int>( );
   numbers.Add(1);
   numbers.Add(2);
 
   // Display all integers in the ArrayList.
   foreach (int i in numbers)
   {
      Console.WriteLine(i);
   }
   numbers.Clear( );
}

Discussion

Since ArrayLists are used in almost all applications, it is a good place to start to enhance the performance of your application. For simple implementations of the ArrayList in your application, this substitution should be quite easy. However, there are some things to watch out for. For example, the generic List class does not implement the ICloneable interface while the ArrayList class does.

Table 4-1 shows the equivalent members that are implemented in both classes.

Table 4-1. Equivalent members in the ArrayList and the generic List classes

Members in the ArrayList class	Equivalent members in the generic List class
Capacity property	Capacity property
Count property	Count property
IsFixedSize property	((IList)myList).IsFixedSize
IsReadOnly property	((IList)myList).IsReadOnly
IsSynchronized property	((IList)myList).IsSynchronized
Item property	Item property
SyncRoot property	((IList)myList).SyncRoot
Adapter static method	N/A
Add method	Add method
AddRange method	AddRange method
N/A	AsReadOnly method
BinarySearch method	BinarySearch method
Clear method	Clear method
Clone method	GetRange(0, numbers.Count)
Contains method	Contains method
N/A	ConvertAll method
CopyTo method	CopyTo method
N/A	Exists method
N/A	Find method
N/A	FindAll method
N/A	FindIndex method
N/A	FindLast method
N/A	FindLastIndex method
N/A	ForEach method
FixedSize static method	N/A
GetRange method	GetRange method
IndexOf method	IndexOf method
Insert method	Insert method
InsertRange method	InsertRange method
LastIndexOf method	LastIndexOf method
ReadOnly static method	AsReadOnly method
Remove method	Remove method
N/A	RemoveAll method
RemoveAt method	RemoveAt method
RemoveRange method	RemoveRange method
Repeat static method	Use a for loop and the Add method
Reverse method	Reverse method
SetRange method	InsertRange method
Sort method	Sort method
Synchronized static method	lock(myList.SyncRoot) {…}
ToArray method	ToArray method
N/A	TrimExcess method
TrimToSize method	TrimToSize method
N/A	TrueForAll method

In several cases within Table 4-1 there is not a one-to-one correlation between the members of an ArrayList and the members of the generic List class. Starting with the properties, notice that only the Capacity, Count, and Item properties are present in both classes. To make up for the missing properties in the List class, you can perform a cast to an IList. The following code shows how to use these casts to get at the missing properties.

List<int> numbers = new List<int>( );
Console.WriteLine(((IList)numbers).IsReadOnly);
Console.WriteLine(((IList)numbers).IsFixedSize);
 
Console.WriteLine(((IList)numbers).IsSynchronized);
Console.WriteLine(((IList)numbers).SyncRoot);

Note that due to the absence of code that returns a synchronized version of a generic List and the absence of code that returns a fixed size generic List, the IsFixedSize and IsSynchronized properties will always return false. The SyncRoot property will always return the same object on which it is called. Essentially, this property returns the this pointer. Microsoft has decided to remove the ability to create a synchronous wrapper from any of the generic collection classes. Instead, they recommend using the lock keyword to lock the entire collection or another type of synchronization object that suits your needs.

The ArrayList has several static methods to which there is no direct equivalent method in the generic List class. To fix this you have to do a little work. The closest match for the static ArrayList.ReadOnly method is the AsReadOnly instance method of the generic List class. This makes for a fairly simple substitution.

The static ArrayList.Repeat method has no direct equivalent in the generic List class. So instead, you can use the following generic method:

public static void Repeat<T>(List<T> list, T obj, int count)
{
   if (count < 0)
   {
      throw (new ArgumentException(
         "The count parameter must be greater or equal to zero."));
   }
   for (int index = 0; index < count; index++)
   {
      list.Add(obj);
   }
}

This generic method takes three parameters:

list

The generic List object

obj

The object that will be added to the generic List object a specified number of times

count

The number of times to add the object contained in obj to the generic List object

Since the Clone method is also missing from the generic List class (due to the fact that this class does not implement the ICloneable interface), you can instead use the GetRange method of the generic List class.

List<int> oldList = new List<int>( );
// Populate oldList...
 
List<int> newList = oldList.GetRange(0, oldList.Count);

The GetRange method performs a shallow copy (similar to the Clone method of the ArrayList) of a range of elements in the List object. In this case the range of elements includes all elements.

The ArrayList has a default initial capacity of 16 elements, while the List<T> has a default initial capacity of only 4 elements. This means that the List<T> will have to be resized (and reallocated) 3 times by the time the 17th element is added, whereas the ArrayList will have to be resized only one time. This should be taken into account when evaluating the performance of your application.

See Also

See the "System.Collections.ArrayList Class" and "System.Collections.Generic.List Class" topics in the MSDN documentation.