Java面试题总结(3)之ArrayList 中的modCount作用

/**
     * The number of times this list has been <i>structurally modified</i>.
     * Structural modifications are those that change the size of the
     * list, or otherwise perturb it in such a fashion that iterations in
     * progress may yield incorrect results.
     *
     * <p>This field is used by the iterator and list iterator implementation
     * returned by the {@code iterator} and {@code listIterator} methods.
     * If the value of this field changes unexpectedly, the iterator (or list
     * iterator) will throw a {@code ConcurrentModificationException} in
     * response to the {@code next}, {@code remove}, {@code previous},
     * {@code set} or {@code add} operations.  This provides
     * <i>fail-fast</i> behavior, rather than non-deterministic behavior in
     * the face of concurrent modification during iteration.
     *
     * <p><b>Use of this field by subclasses is optional.</b> If a subclass
     * wishes to provide fail-fast iterators (and list iterators), then it
     * merely has to increment this field in its {@code add(int, E)} and
     * {@code remove(int)} methods (and any other methods that it overrides
     * that result in structural modifications to the list).  A single call to
     * {@code add(int, E)} or {@code remove(int)} must add no more than
     * one to this field, or the iterators (and list iterators) will throw
     * bogus {@code ConcurrentModificationExceptions}.  If an implementation
     * does not wish to provide fail-fast iterators, this field may be
     * ignored.
     */
    protected transient int modCount = 0;

在父类AbstractList中定义了一个int型的属性：modCount，记录了ArrayList结构性变化的次数。　在ArrayList的所有涉及结构变化的方法中都增加modCount的值，包括：add()、remove()、addAll()、removeRange()及clear()方法。这些方法每调用一次，modCount的值就加1。

注：add()及addAll()方法的modCount的值是在其中调用的ensureCapacity()方法中增加的。

AbstractList中的iterator()方法（ArrayList直接继承了这个方法）使用了一个私有内部成员类Itr，生成一个Itr对象（Iterator接口）返回：

public Iterator<E> iterator() {
        return listIterator();
    }

Itr实现了Iterator()接口，其中也定义了一个int型的属性：expectedModCount，这个属性在Itr类初始化时被赋予ArrayList对象的modCount属性的值。

/**
         * The modCount value that the iterator believes that the backing
         * List should have.  If this expectation is violated, the iterator
         * has detected concurrent modification.
         */
        int expectedModCount = modCount;

注：内部成员类Itr也是ArrayList类的一个成员，它可以访问所有的AbstractList的属性和方法。理解了这一点，Itr类的实现就容易理解了。

在Itr.hasNext()方法中：

public boolean hasNext() {
            return cursor != size();
        }

调用了AbstractList的size()方法，比较当前光标位置是否越界。在Itr.next()方法中，Itr也调用了定义在AbstractList中的get(int)方法，返回当前光标处的元素：

        public E next() {
            checkForComodification();
            try {
                int i = cursor;
                E next = get(i);
                lastRet = i;
                cursor = i + 1;
                return next;
            } catch (IndexOutOfBoundsException e) {
                checkForComodification();
                throw new NoSuchElementException();
            }
        }

 注意，在next()方法中调用了checkForComodification()方法，进行对修改的同步检查：

        final void checkForComodification() {
            if (modCount != expectedModCount)
                throw new ConcurrentModificationException();
        }

现在对modCount和expectedModCount的作用应该非常清楚了。在对一个集合对象进行跌代操作的同时，并不限制对集合对象的元素进行操 作，这些操作包括一些可能引起跌代错误的add()或remove()等危险操作。在AbstractList中，使用了一个简单的机制来规避这些风险。 这就是modCount和expectedModCount的作用所在。