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According to the Java API Interface Enumeration<E> documentation [API 20112013], Interface Enumeration<E> documentation,

An object that implements the Enumeration interface generates a series of elements, one at a time. Successive calls to the nextElement method return successive elements of the series.

As an example, an Enumeration is used in the following code to uses an Enumeration to display the contents of a Vector.:

for (Enumeration e = vector.elements(); e.hasMoreElements();) {
  System.out.println(e.nextElement());
}

Unfortunately, a Vector and an Enumeration may not always work well together. In fact, the The Java API [API 20112013] recommends, "New implementations should consider using Iterator in preference to Enumeration." Iterators are superior to enumerations because they use simpler method names, and unlike enumerations, iterators have well-defined semantics when elements in a collection are removed while iterating over the collection. Consequently, iterators rather than enumerators should be preferred when examining iterable collections.

Noncompliant Code Example

This noncompliant code example implements a BankOperations class  class with a removeAccounts() method used to terminate all the accounts of a particular account holder, as identified by the name. Names can be repeated in the vector if a person has more than one account. The remove() method attempts to iterate through all the vector entries, comparing each entry with the name "Harry."

class BankOperations {
  private static void removeAccountsremoveAccount(VectorVector<String> v, String name) {
    Enumeration e = v.elements();
		          
    while (e.hasMoreElements()) {
      String s = (String) e.nextElement();
      if (s.equals(name)) {
        v.remove("Harry"name); // Second Harry is not removed
      }
    }
 
    // Display current account holders
    System.out.println("The names are:");
    e = v.elements();
    while (e.hasMoreElements()) {
      System.out.println(e.nextElement());  // Prints Dick, Harry, Tom	
      System.out.println(e.nextElement());
    }
  }
	 
  public public static void main(String args[]) { 
    // List contains a sorted array of account holder names
    // Repeats are admissible 
    List list = new ArrayList( Arrays.asList(
      new String[] {"Dick", "Harry", "Harry", "Tom"}));
    Vector v = new Vector(list);
    removeAccount(v, "Harry"); 
  }
}

Upon encountering the first "Harry," it successfully removes the entry, and the size of the vector diminishes to three. However, the index of the Enumeration does not decrease by 1 remains unchanged, causing the program to use "Tom" for perform the next (now final) comparison . As a resultwith "Tom." Consequently, the second "Harry" remains in the vector unscathed, having shifted to the second position in the vector.

Compliant Solution

According to the Java API Interface Iterator<E> documentation [API 20112013], Interface Iterator<E> documentation,

Iterator takes the place of Enumeration in the Java collections framework. Iterators differ from enumerations in two ways:

• Iterators allow the caller to remove elements from the underlying collection during the iteration with well-defined semantics.
• Method names have been improved.

This compliant solution remedies the problem described in the noncompliant code example and demonstrates the advantages of using an Iterator over an Enumeration.:

class BankOperations {
  private static void removeAccountsremoveAccount(Vector v, String name) {
    Iterator i = v.iterator();
	      
    while (i.hasNext()) {
      String s = (String) i.next();
      if (s.equals(name)) {
        i.remove(); // Correctly removes all instances of the name Harry
      }
    }

    // Display current account holders
    System.out.println("The names are:");
    i = v.iterator();
    while while (i.hasNext()) {
      System.out.println(i.next()); // Prints Dick, Tom only	     
    }
  }
	      
  public static void main(String args[]) {
    List list = new ArrayList( Arrays.asList(
      new String[] {"Dick", "Harry", "Harry", "Tom"}));
    Vector v = new Vector(list);
    remove(v, "Harry"); 
  }
}

Applicability

Using Enumeration when performing remove operations on a vector an iterable Collection may cause unexpected program behavior.

Bibliography

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