Java – Using a long as ArrayList index in java

arraylistjava

I am writing this java program to find all the prime numbers up to num using the Sieve of Eratosthenes, but when I try to compile, it says I can't use a long var as an array index, and it expects an int var in its place. But I'll be working with large numbers, so I can't use int. What can I do?

import java.util.*;
import java.lang.*;

public class t3{
    public static void main(String[] args){
        long num = 100;

        //declaring list and filling it with numbers
        ArrayList<Long> numlist = new ArrayList<Long>();
        for(long x=2 ; x<num ; x++){
            numlist.add(new Long(x));
        }

        //sieve or eratosthenes
        for(long x=0 ; x<Math.sqrt(num) ; x++){
            for(long y=x+1 ; y<numlist.size() ; y++){
                if(numlist[y]%numlist[x] == 0){
                    numlist.remove(y);
                }
            }
        }

        //print list
        for(Object item : numlist){
            System.out.println((Long)item);
        }
    }
}

Best Solution

I'm not sure why your code would compile to begin with.

You're not supposed to use [] in an array list to access members. An arraylist is merely a list that is internally stored in an array. You have to use the list get operation (which would still be O(1)). Writing numlist[index] means that you have an array of objects in numlist. You cannot override the [] operation as in C++.

In addition, an int is 32 bits in Java. Having an array of length greater than 2^32 (so you would need long indices) is unlikely and I'm not even sure the specification allows it.

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