Simplest way to add an item to beginning of an array in Java

Question

I need the simplest way to add an item to the front of an Java array.
I need the Java array NOT the ArrayList.

Answer 1

There are two ways to do this. One, using Objects or another using generics. I recommend you to use generics because gives you more flexibility as you gonna see in these examples.

In this first implementation the function add2BeginningOfArray is using generics:

public static <T> T[] add2BeginningOfArray(T[] elements, T element)
{
    T[] newArray = Arrays.copyOf(elements, elements.length + 1);
    newArray[0] = element;
    System.arraycopy(elements, 0, newArray, 1, elements.length);

    return newArray;
}

Calling this function is really simple. For instance, if you have a class Dot and you want to add an element to the beginning of an array of Dot objects you just need to do this:

int size = 20;
Dot[] dots = new Dot[size];
for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) {
    dots[i] = new Dot("This is a dot");
}

Dot goal = new Dot("This is a goal");

System.out.println(Arrays.toString(add2BeginningOfArray(dots, goal)));

You can also implement a function declaring the function parameters as Object as shown in this example:

public static Object[] add2BeginningOfArray(Object[] elements, Object element){
    Object[] tempArr = new Object[elements.length + 1];
    tempArr[0] = element;
    System.arraycopy(elements, 0, tempArr, 1, elements.length);
}

Now, what is the problem? Well, not a big problem but now you need to declare your array as Object[] and use this kind of declaration to work with it.

Object[] foo = {"2", "3", "4"};

//adding an element to the beginning array
Object[] numbers = add2BeginningOfArray(foo, "1");
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(numbers));

For me the generics approach is cleaner and more scalable, so I really recommend it over the Object approach.

Answer 2

Apache Commons Lang class 'ArrayUtils' makes this very easy, if that is an option for you:

char[] arrayA = {'b', 'c'};
char[] arrayB = ArrayUtils.add(arrayA, 0, 'a');
// arrayB: [a, b, c]

Answer 3

As per the Java tutorials (which I thoroughly recommend beginners to work through)

An array is a container object that holds a fixed number of values of a single type. The length of an array is established when the array is created. After creation, its length is fixed.

Because arrays cannot be resized - you can overwrite the first element, but to perform an insert you must create a new array 1 larger than the previous one, put your new element in the first position and fill the rest of the array with the existing elements.

Of course, in practice don't do this. Instead use a collection that suits your actual use-case.

So the actual answer to your question is: The simplest way to add an item to front of a java array is to use a better collection type such as a Deque.

I cannot think of any valid reason in Java to not use a more appropriate collection than a raw array if inserting to the front is required.

Answer 4

Once created an array cannot be resized. If you have to add an element you'll need to create a new array. If you know the array type it's trivial, but a nicer solution will work with any array type, using the java.lang.reflect.Array

Example code:

public static Object addElementInFrontOfArray(Object array, Object element) {
     int newArraySize = Array.getLength(array)+1;
     Object newArray = Array.newInstance(element.getClass(), newArraySize);
     //Add first element
     Array.set(newArray, 0, element);
     for (int i=1 ; i<newArraySize; i++) {
         Array.set(newArray, i, Array.get(array, i-1));
     }
     return newArray;
}

Consider that you can pass a int[] array as parameter but a Integer[] arrary will be returned

Answer 5

Considering this source

https://www.journaldev.com/763/java-array-add-elements

you can add new elements at the beginning of you array by doing this:

    public static Object[] add(Object[] arr, Object... elements){
    Object[] tempArr = new Object[arr.length+elements.length];
    System.arraycopy(arr, 0, tempArr, elements.length, arr.length);

    for(int i=0; i < elements.length; i++)
        tempArr[i] = elements[i];
    return tempArr;

}

Answer 6

Why not just use an ArrayList?

You could use an Array convert it to a List as follows:

List<Integer> myList = Arrays.asList(1,2,3); 
//Instead of 1,2,3 you could create an Integer array: Integer[] myArray = {1,2,3};

myList.add(0, 25);

If you decide doing this way, you could check the answers of this question:

Java Arrays how to add elements at the beginning

or just check out the documentation:

https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/util/ArrayList.html

Answer 7

here's a concrete example of the simplest way I could find:

    List<StackTraceElement> stack = new ArrayList<StackTraceElement> (Arrays.asList (e.getStackTrace()));
    stack.add (0, new StackTraceElement ("class", "method", "file", 25439));
    StackTraceElement[] newStack = new StackTraceElement[stack.size()];
    newStack = stack.toArray (newStack);  
    e.setStackTrace (newStack);

Basically it uses java.util.Arrays.asList() to turn the array into a List, adds to the list and then turns the list back into an array with List.toArray().

As everybody has said, you can't really add to the beginning of an array unless you shift all the elements by one first, or as in my solution, you make a new array.

Answer 8

Just .unshift()

This adds an element to the beginning of an array.