Fastest way from ejbql Collection to ValueObject[]?

[dhartford]

Hey all,
To date, I have been doing the following to cast my ejbfinder/ejbselects to value objects:

==code==
Collection codes = ahome.findAll();
MyEntityLocal[] mycodes = (MyEntityLocal[])codes.toArray(new MyEntityLocal[0]);

MyEntityLightValue[] myvo = new MyEntityLightValue[mycodes.length];

for (int i=0; i<mycodes.length; i++){

myvo[ i ] = mycodes[ i ].getMyEntityLightValue();
}
==end code==

Is there a more efficient/faster way of doing this? I looked into ejbselects to return directly the Value Object Array, but that did not meet with success.

Any help would be appreciated!
-D

[s2ulf]

Hello!

Take a look at http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/j-santa1/. That example has a good implementation for retrieving value objects. A reminder: you have to take special care in supporting bi-directional relationships when dealing with value objects (e.g. object A has one/many B, B has one/many A) or else it will be reentrant (recursive).

If you like the way it is implemented in the IBM example, try using XDoclet. It generates everything for you!

Cheers,
Ulf
[/url]

[semi]

Hi,

creating an array and copying all items from a collection into it
is more expensive as a simple iterator walktrough with casts
on each item.

Collection codes = ahome.findAll();
MyEntityLightValue[] myvo = new MyEntityLightValue[codes.size()];

Iterator iterator = codes.iterator();
for(int index=myvo.length; index>0; index--)
{
 myvo[index] = ((MyEntityLocal)iterator.next()).getMyEntityLightValue();
}

*note there is no iterator.hasNext() as break condition but
a simple counter because you know, how many times you can
invoke iterator.next().

For large collections you can access the item buffer of a
collection directly without the costs of invoking a
ArrayList.get(index) or iterator.next() at all.

Field elementDataField = ArrayList.class.getDeclaredField("elementData");
elementDataField.setAccessible(true);

Object myEntities[] = (Object[])elementDataField.get(ahome.findAll());
MyEntityLightValue[] myvo = new MyEntityLightValue[myEntities.length];

for(int index=0; index<myvo.length; index++)
{
 myvo[index] = ((MyEntityLocal)myEntities[index]).getMyEntityLightValue();
}
return myvo;

or even reuse the buffer and return an array with value objects.
(I assume the collection is garbage collected after the method call)

Field elementDataField = ArrayList.class.getDeclaredField("elementData");
elementDataField.setAccessible(true);

Object myEntities[] = (Object[])elementDataField.get(ahome.findAll());

for(int index=0; index<myEntities.length; index++)
{
 myEntities[index] = ((MyEntityLocal)myEntities[index]).getMyEntityLightValue();
}

return myEntities; // Object[]

Regards,
Michael

[semi]

Ohh... the first code block should be like this :-)

Collection codes = ahome.findAll();
MyEntityLightValue[] myvo = new MyEntityLightValue[codes.size()];
Iterator iterator = codes.iterator();
for(int index=0; index<myvo.length; index++)
{
 myvo[index] = ((MyEntityLocal)iterator.next()).getMyEntityLightValue();
}