Ways to remove with Sparsearray

Question

While trying to remove items from my SparsArray found the method remove and another method that is the removeAt but what’s the difference?

Answer 1

Well, the removeis just an alias for delete. Then we must compare:

delete vs removeAt

And there’s not much difference. The only difference is that the delete does a key check with binarySearchbefore assigning the empty Object to the key value.

mValues[i] = DELETED; 

That one DELETED is an attribute that contains an empty Object. This object is what replaces value to be deleted.

delete()

public void delete(int key) { 
        int i = ContainerHelpers.binarySearch(mKeys, mSize, key); 

        if (i >= 0) { 
            if (mValues[i] != DELETED) { 
                mValues[i] = DELETED; 
                mGarbage = true; 
            } 
        } 
    } 

removeAt()

public void removeAt(int index) { 
        if (mValues[index] != DELETED) { 
            mValues[index] = DELETED; 
            mGarbage = true; 
        } 
    }

Which one should I use?

If you are SURE that the key that is informed will always exist, use the removeAt. Otherwise use the remove or delete.

For consultation: Sparsearray, Documentation of Android