RandomAccess接口

jdk中有个RandomAccess接口，这是一个标记接口(Marker)，它没有任何方法，这个接口被List的实现类（子类）使用。如果List子类实现了RandomAccess接口，那就表示它能够快速随机访问存储的元素。RandomAccess接口的意义在于：在对列表进行随机或顺序访问的时候，访问算法能够选择性能最佳方式。

一般的列表访问算法在访问列表元素之前，都被建议先使用instanceof关键字检查一下列表是否是一个RandomAccess子类，然后再决定采用随机还是顺序方式访问列表中的元素，这样可以保证访问算法拥有最佳的性能。

对于List的子类，如果：

for (int i=0, n=list.size(); i < n; i++)
    list.get(i);

的访问方式比：

for (Iterator i=list.iterator(); i.hasNext(); )
    i.next();

快，那么它应该实现RandomAccess接口。

接口源码：

/*
 * %W% %E%
 *
 * Copyright (c) 2006, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
 * ORACLE PROPRIETARY/CONFIDENTIAL. Use is subject to license terms.
 */

package java.util;

/**
 * Marker interface used by <tt>List</tt> implementations to indicate that
 * they support fast (generally constant time) random access.  The primary
 * purpose of this interface is to allow generic algorithms to alter their
 * behavior to provide good performance when applied to either random or
 * sequential access lists.
 *
 * <p>The best algorithms for manipulating random access lists (such as
 * <tt>ArrayList</tt>) can produce quadratic behavior when applied to
 * sequential access lists (such as <tt>LinkedList</tt>).  Generic list
 * algorithms are encouraged to check whether the given list is an
 * <tt>instanceof</tt> this interface before applying an algorithm that would
 * provide poor performance if it were applied to a sequential access list,
 * and to alter their behavior if necessary to guarantee acceptable
 * performance.
 * 
 * <p>It is recognized that the distinction between random and sequential
 * access is often fuzzy.  For example, some <tt>List</tt> implementations
 * provide asymptotically linear access times if they get huge, but constant
 * access times in practice.  Such a <tt>List</tt> implementation
 * should generally implement this interface.  As a rule of thumb, a
 * <tt>List</tt> implementation should implement this interface if,
 * for typical instances of the class, this loop:
 * <pre>
 *     for (int i=0, n=list.size(); i &lt; n; i++)
 *         list.get(i);
 * </pre>
 * runs faster than this loop:
 * <pre>
 *     for (Iterator i=list.iterator(); i.hasNext(); )
 *         i.next();
 * </pre>
 *
 * <p>This interface is a member of the 
 * <a href="{@docRoot}/../technotes/guides/collections/index.html">
 * Java Collections Framework</a>.
 *
 * @since 1.4
 */
public interface RandomAccess {
}