Array in object overwrite problem

Question

Hi
hope you can help me with this as i've already been using too much time solving it myself :)
I got a Board class which have an ArrayList<ArrayList<Integer>> as attribute. The Board class is controlled from my service class. I need to create a lot of boards which all needs different ArrayList<ArrayList<Integer>> input, so i made a for loop which creates the Boards. The problem is however when i change the variable i used to create the object the values also change inside the object even though the create method have already been called. English isn't my native language so it's a bit hard to explain :) Please ask if there's something you don't understand.
thanks in advance!
I made a temporary solution by making a 3d arraylist so i won't have to overwrite any values but thats not rly a good solution as it's starting to give me problems elsewhere.
the method that creates the boards is Service.importCSV()
model.Board
package model;
import java.util.ArrayList;
public class Board {
     private String controleNumber;
     private ArrayList<ArrayList<Integer>> numbers = new ArrayList<ArrayList<Integer>>();
     private ArrayList<ArrayList<Integer>> remainingNumbers = new ArrayList<ArrayList<Integer>>();
     public Board(String controlenumber, ArrayList<ArrayList<Integer>> numbers) {
          this.controleNumber = controlenumber;
          this.numbers = numbers;
          this.remainingNumbers = numbers;
     public String getControlenumber() {
          return controleNumber;
     public void setControlenumber(String controleNumber) {
          this.controleNumber = controleNumber;
     public ArrayList<ArrayList<Integer>> getNumbers() {
          return numbers;
     public void setNumbers(ArrayList<ArrayList<Integer>> numbers) {
          this.numbers = numbers;
     public void setRemainingNumbers(ArrayList<ArrayList<Integer>> remainingNumbers) {
          this.remainingNumbers = remainingNumbers;
     public ArrayList<ArrayList<Integer>> getRemainingNumbers() {
          return remainingNumbers;
     public String toString() {
          return String.valueOf(controleNumber);
}service.Service
package service;
import gui.MainFrame;
import java.io.BufferedInputStream;
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.logging.Level;
import java.util.logging.Logger;
import ramdao.BoardDao;
import model.Board;
public class Service {
     private static ArrayList<Integer> numbers = new ArrayList<Integer>();
     public static List<Board> getAllBoards() {
          return BoardDao.getAllBoards();
     public static Board createBoard(String controleNumber, ArrayList<ArrayList<Integer>> numbers) {
          Board board = new Board(controleNumber, numbers);
          BoardDao.store(board);
          return board;
     public static void deleteBoard(Board board) {
          BoardDao.remove(board);
     public static Board checkFor(int checkFor) {
          for(Board board : getAllBoards()) {
               System.out.println(board.getRemainingNumbers());
               for(ArrayList<Integer> row : board.getRemainingNumbers()) {
                    for(int i=0;i<row.size();i++) {
                         if(numbers.contains(row.get(i))) {
                              row.remove(row.get(i));
               if(checkFor==1) {
                    for(ArrayList<Integer> row : board.getRemainingNumbers()) {
                         if(row.size()==0) {
                              return board;
               else if(checkFor==2) {
                    if(board.getRemainingNumbers().get(0).size()==0 && board.getRemainingNumbers().get(1).size()==0) {
                         return board;
                    else if(board.getRemainingNumbers().get(0).size()==0 && board.getRemainingNumbers().get(2).size()==0) {
                         return board;
                    else if(board.getRemainingNumbers().get(1).size()==0 && board.getRemainingNumbers().get(2).size()==0) {
                         return board;
               else if(checkFor==3) {
                    if(board.getRemainingNumbers().size()==0) {
                         return board;
               System.out.println(board.getRemainingNumbers()  );
          return null;
     public static ArrayList<Integer> oneToGo(int rows, ArrayList<Integer> numbers) {
          //TO-DO
          return null;
     public static void importCSV(ArrayList<String> buff) {
          ArrayList<ArrayList<ArrayList<Integer>>> allNumbers = new ArrayList<ArrayList<ArrayList<Integer>>>();
          int line = 0;
          String controleNumber = "";
          String[] splitLine = new String[10];
          for(int i=0;i<buff.size();i++) {
               //adds the split buff to splitLine
               for(int q=0;q<buff.get(i).split(";").length;q++) {
                    if(buff.get(i).split(";")[q].equals(""))
                         splitLine[q]="0";
                    else
                         splitLine[q]=buff.get(i).split(";")[q];
               if(line==0) {
                    allNumbers.add(new ArrayList<ArrayList<Integer>>());
                    ArrayList<Integer> row = new ArrayList<Integer>();
                    allNumbers.get(allNumbers.size()-1).add(row);
                    controleNumber=buff.get(i).split(";")[0];
                    for(int q=buff.get(i).split(";").length;q<10;q++) {
                         splitLine[q]="0";
                    for(int q=0;q<9;q++) {
                         row.add(Integer.valueOf(splitLine[q+1]));
               else if(line==1) {
                    ArrayList<Integer> row = new ArrayList<Integer>();
                    allNumbers.get(allNumbers.size()-1).add(row);
                    for(int q=buff.get(i).split(";").length;q<9;q++) {
                         splitLine[q]="0";
                    for(int q=0;q<9;q++) {
                         row.add(Integer.valueOf(splitLine[q]));
               else if(line==2) {
                    ArrayList<Integer> row = new ArrayList<Integer>();
                    allNumbers.get(allNumbers.size()-1).add(row);
                    for(int q=buff.get(i).split(";").length;q<9;q++) {
                         splitLine[q]="0";
                    for(int q=0;q<9;q++) {
                         row.add(Integer.valueOf(splitLine[q]));
                    createBoard(controleNumber, allNumbers.get(allNumbers.size()-1));
                    line=-1;
               line++;
     public static ArrayList<String> readFile(File file) {
          FileInputStream fileInputStream = null;
          ArrayList<String> buff = new ArrayList<String>();
          String line;
          try {
               fileInputStream = new FileInputStream(file);
               BufferedInputStream bufferedInputStream = new BufferedInputStream(fileInputStream);
               BufferedReader bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(bufferedInputStream));
               while ((line = bufferedReader.readLine())!= null) {
                    buff.add(line);
          catch (IOException ex) {
               Logger.getLogger(MainFrame.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
          finally {
               try {
                    fileInputStream.close();
               catch (IOException ex) {
                    Logger.getLogger(MainFrame.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
          return buff;
     public static void addNumber(int number) {
          numbers.add(number);
     public static ArrayList<Integer> getNumbers() {
          return numbers;
}

Answer 1

Tried the code but it's full of compiletime errors. I changed it a little but still got
Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0" java.lang.Error: Unresolved compilation problems:
     board cannot be resolved
     row cannot be resolved
     line cannot be resolved
     board cannot be resolved
     board cannot be resolvedwith the following code
public static void importCSV(ArrayList<String> buff) {
          ArrayList<ArrayList<ArrayList<Integer>>> allNumbers
          = new ArrayList<ArrayList<ArrayList<Integer>>>();
          String[] splitLine = new String[10];
          String controleNumber;
          for(int i=0;i<buff.size();i++) {
               int line = i % 3;
               // split the buffer into fields
               String[] splitBuf = buff.get(i).split(";");
               int start = 0;
               if(line==0) { // new board
                    ArrayList<ArrayList<Integer>> board = new ArrayList<ArrayList<Integer>>();
                    controleNumber = splitBuf[0];
                    start = 1;
               ArrayList<Integer> row = new ArrayList<Integer>();
               // fill row from the buffer fields...
               for(int b = start, last = start+9; b < last; b++) {
                    if(b >= splitBuf.length || splitBuf.length() == 0)
                         row.add(0);
                    else
                         row.add(Integer.valueOf(splitBuf[b]));
          }This is my main problem:createBoard(controleNumber, board);
     board.clear();
     row.clear();The board that i created using the createBord method doesn't hold any numbers because i cleared the arrays i used to create it *after* creating it.
got my software construction teacher to help me today :)
works!     public static void importCSV(ArrayList<String> buff) {
          ArrayList<ArrayList<Integer>> board = new ArrayList<ArrayList<Integer>>();
          ArrayList<Integer> row = new ArrayList<Integer>();
          String controleNumber = "";
          int line;
          for(int i=0;i<buff.size();i++) {
               line = i % 3;
               String[] splitBuf = buff.get(i).split(";");
               int start = 0;
               if(line==0) { // new board
                    board = new ArrayList<ArrayList<Integer>>();
                    controleNumber = splitBuf[0];
                    start = 1;
               row = new ArrayList<Integer>();
               // fill row from the buffer fields...
               for(int b = start, last = start+9; b < last; b++) {
                    if(b >= splitBuf.length || splitBuf[b].length() == 0)
                         row.add(0);
                    else
                         row.add(Integer.valueOf(splitBuf[b]));
               board.add(row);
               if(line==2) {
                    createBoard(controleNumber, board);
     }Edited by: Briam on Apr 12, 2010 12:37 AM