Question

I want to navigate into a list by identifier.

1- I manage/create a list.

2- I create function to get next item of a identifier element from my list

Can you help me to fix this code?

Prepare the list

List<String> myList = new ArrayList<String>();
myList.add("1");
myList.add("2");
myList.add("3");
myList.add("4");
myList.add("5");


public String function getNext(String uid) {

    if (myList.indexOf(uid).hasNext()) {
        return myList.indexOf(uid).nextElement();
    }
    return "";
}

public String function getPrevious(String uid) {
    return myList.indexOf(uid).hasPrevious() ? myList.indexOf(uid).previousElement() : "";
}

Answer 1

You could use an index to lookup your String which is faster and simpler however to implement the functions as you have them.

public String getNext(String uid) {
    int idx = myList.indexOf(uid);
    if (idx < 0 || idx+1 == myList.size()) return "";
    return myList.get(idx + 1);
}

public String getPrevious(String uid) {
    int idx = myList.indexOf(uid);
    if (idx <= 0) return "";
    return myList.get(idx - 1);
}

Using a List.get(i) is O(1) which makes keeping the index the fastest option. List.indexOf(String) is O(n). Using a NavigatbleSet might appear attractive as it is O(log n), however the cost of creating an object is so high that the collection has to be fairly large before you would see a benefit. (In which case you would use the first option)