Solved Use collection instead of array?

Hey everyone,

I'm updating a plugin I made a while back, and I am wondering how would I update Bukkit.getOnlinePlayers() to a collection.

This is what I currently have

Code:

Player[] playersOnline;
                        for (int length = (playersOnline = Bukkit.getOnlinePlayers()).length, j = 0; j < length; ++j) {
                            final Player p = playersOnline[j];

How do I change that into a collection?

I tried .size() but that did not work.

Thank you for your help!

-Glass

 

Bukkit.getOnlinePlayers() is a collection.

 

@glasseater Why not just... use a foreach loop?

 

@Scimiguy
I got an error in my ide:

Type mismatch: cannot convert from Collection<capture#2-of ? extends Player> to Player[]

 

What he's (Scimiguy) trying to say is, getOnlinePlayers() returns a Collection<? extends Player>.
Your question might have been incorrectly worded, do you want an array from a Collection or a Collection from an array?
There'd be no point to get a Collection from the array because getOnlinePlayers() already returns a Collection. However, an array from a Collection can be done by using the method Collection#toArray().
E.g. Player[] onlinePlayers = Bukkit.getOnlinePlayers().toArray(new Player[Bukkit.getOnlinePlayers().size()]);

However, from what you're doing, it seems you could just do a foreach loop.
E.g.

Code:

for (Player onlinePlayer : Bukkit.getOnlinePlayers()) { // Iterate through each player in the Collection.

}

 

@KingFaris11
Cool, thank you! Would I be able to still use this:

Code:

j = 0; j < length; ++j

with .size? I tried but it didn't seem to work...

 

@glasseater
Only something similar to that is possible with lists, because they have a get(index) method that allows you to retrieve an element at a certain index.

 

@glasseater
You wouldnt' need to use that if you'd use the example KingFaris gave you

 

@Scimiguy
But then I cant define p?
final Player p = playersOnline[j];

 

Youre defining p every loop

For (Player p : Bukkit.getOnlinePlayers())

Thats called a for each loop, or an extended for loop.

What it does is loops over each element in collection, handing it to you one at a time.

 

@Scimiguy @megamichiel @KingFaris11
Solved! thank you all for your help

 

@glasseater
Please edit the title of this thread and mark it as solved

 

Question, what is the difference between a collection and an ArrayList?

 

@TheNewTao An ArrayList is a Collection. A Collection is an interface found in the java.util package shipped since JDK 1.2. It is used in many of the ADTs (Abstract Data Types) found in the java.util package, including Lists, Sets, Queues, and Deques.