Students in this class have such varied backgrounds that there are some coding skill quite familiar to some and yet others that are new.

On the first set of notes, I suggested knowledge of the data types of lists, stacks and queues and provided a list of some that Java provides as shown below.

Additional Readings:
Chapters 5, 6, 7 (possibly new), 8, 9, 10 should be skimmed over to see what you remember (or don't). You can look at the author's page with solutions to problems. (Answers to odd numbers are at the text pages Exercise Solutions)

Hopefully in your previous classes you actually had to implement lists, stacks and queues. Once you have done the work and know their potentials, then you can appreciate Java's classes:

Note the Array Class used to manipulate arrays. Early/typical use of arrays are not classes but simply represented with [ ]    so do not get confused with the Java collection class given below:

• java.util.Arrays,
• java.util.ArrayList,
• java.util.LinkedList,
• java.util.Vector,
• java.util.Stack,
• java.util.Queue (look at subs for specifics)

For constructs that have proven useful in the past there are nice additions in Java 1.5:

Some programmers from C++ are used to certain constructs such as enum (see here for Java use).
Some programmers from Smalltalk will greatly appreciate the addition of Collections.

These are very useful! I have a page with information on these HERE .
For example, there is a link to the Core Java chapter on Collections as well as some explanation and links to Java tutorials.

I made the page initially for the CSCI 511 class so ignore specific class references but you might find the information very useful for your code. Our class (CSCI 311) also discusses and uses Generics and Collections in the text.