Dart Programming - Lists

A very commonly used collection in programming is an array. Dart represents arrays in the form of List objects. A List is simply an ordered group of objects. The dart:core library provides the List class that enables creation and manipulation of lists.

The logical representation of a list in Dart is given below −

• test_list − is the identifier that references the collection.

• The list contains in it the values 12, 13, and 14. The memory blocks holding these values are known as elements.

• Each element in the List is identified by a unique number called the index. The index starts from zero and extends up to n-1 where n is the total number of elements in the List. The index is also referred to as the subscript.

Lists can be classified as −

• Fixed Length List
• Growable List

Let us now discuss these two types of lists in detail.

Fixed Length List

A fixed length list’s length cannot change at runtime. The syntax for creating a fixed length list is as given below −

Step 1 − Declaring a list

The syntax for declaring a fixed length list is given below −

var list_name = new List(initial_size)

The above syntax creates a list of the specified size. The list cannot grow or shrink at runtime. Any attempt to resize the list will result in an exception.

Step 2 − Initializing a list

The syntax for initializing a list is as given below −

lst_name[index] = value;

Example

void main() { 
   var lst = new List(3); 
   lst[0] = 12; 
   lst[1] = 13; 
   lst[2] = 11; 
   print(lst); 
}

It will produce the following output −

[12, 13, 11]

Growable List

A growable list’s length can change at run-time. The syntax for declaring and initializing a growable list is as given below −

Step 1 − Declaring a List

var list_name = [val1,val2,val3]   
--- creates a list containing the specified values  
OR  
var list_name = new List() 
--- creates a list of size zero 

Step 2 − Initializing a List

The index / subscript is used to reference the element that should be populated with a value. The syntax for initializing a list is as given below −

list_name[index] = value;

Example

The following example shows how to create a list of 3 elements.

void main() { 
   var num_list = [1,2,3]; 
   print(num_list); 
}

It will produce the following output −

[1, 2, 3]

Example

The following example creates a zero-length list using the empty List() constructor. The add() function in the List class is used to dynamically add elements to the list.

void main() { 
   var lst = new List(); 
   lst.add(12); 
   lst.add(13); 
   print(lst); 
} 

It will produce the following output −

[12, 13] 

List Properties

The following table lists some commonly used properties of the List class in the dart:core library.