Is there a technical difference between the terms "length" and "size" (in programming, of course)?

java object terminology method-names
Tom R picture Tom R · Feb 4, 2010 · Viewed 9.6k times · Source

Possible Duplicate:
count vs length vs size in a collection

In Java in particular, on Strings, you call string.length(), whereas in Lists you call list.size(). Is there a technical difference between the two terms, seeing as a String is really just a list of chars?

Any comments appreciated.

Answer

Joel Rondeau picture Joel Rondeau · Feb 4, 2010

In general, length() is used when something has a constant length, while size() is used on something with a variable length. Past that, I know of no good reason for using two nearly-synonymous terms.

Related questions

How to avoid null checking in Java?

I use object != null a lot to avoid NullPointerException. Is there a good alternative to this? For example I often use: if (someobject != null) { someobject.doCalc(); } This checks for a NullPointerException for the someobject object in the above snippet.

Read More
How do I copy an object in Java?

Consider the code below: DummyBean dum = new DummyBean(); dum.setDummy("foo"); System.out.println(dum.getDummy()); // prints 'foo' DummyBean dumtwo = dum; System.out.println(dumtwo.getDummy()); // prints 'foo' dum.setDummy("bar"); System.out.println(dumtwo.getDummy()); // prints 'bar' but it …

Read More
How to pass an object from one activity to another on Android

I am trying to work on sending an object of my customer class from one Activity and display it in another Activity. The code for the customer class: public class Customer { private String firstName, lastName, Address; int Age; public Customer(…

Read More