Java : arraylist shows empty when it used to show null values

Question

I have a weird problem (please have in mind I reently started learning) the toString method ArrayList in let's say ArrayList(5) shows []

but this class whih is similar would show [null, null, null, null, null]

before ArrayList was showing nulls as well and I was happy and all was working fine (did i imagine it?) I need ArrayList to show me nulls like the link eample. Please help me

  import java.util.ArrayList; public class testArray { public static void main (String[] arg){ List myList = new ArrayList(5); System.out.print(myList); } } 

Edit: I think I didn't explain myself (I apologies). I DO want to create an empty list but I want null references instead of an empty list. I'm sure it's something dumb I'm not seeing

Edit2: I got it!...im sorry i wasnt able to be understood but this is what I wanted..

public String toString() {
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("[");
    for (int i = 0; i<elem.length; i++) {
        sb.append(elems[i]);
            sb.append(", ");
    }
    return sb + "]\n" + elem.length+"\n";
}

I just had to oerride the tostring method so i would show the results as null :D thank you anyways!!! now i dont know how to close the post :P :P

Answer 1

This code will initialize all your list elements to null

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Collections;

public class TestArray {

  public static void main(String[] arg) {
    ArrayList<Object> list = new ArrayList<Object>(Collections.nCopies(5, null));
    System.out.println(list);
  }
}

output: [null, null, null, null, null]