List interface

anrup kris
I am confused by the List interface.It is supposed to represent an ordered collection.But it looks like the collection is ordered
only when it is created.If I use add()method on the list,the new element is appended to the end of the list.In that case,isn't the inherent ordering of the collection lost?
I am sure I am missing something important here.Can anybody help?

thanks
kris

code:

---

List list = new ArrayList();
list.add("Hello");
list.add("There");
list.add("World");

---

then the three elements will remain in that order:

code:

---

Iterator it = list.iterator();
while(it.hasNext())
{
  System.out.println(it.next());
}

---

will print out

Hello
There
World

This is in contrast to an unordered collection, such as a Hashtable, where there is no guarantee about the order of the elements when you retrieve them.