Searching Vectors

Question

If I add several of these objects:
     //A customer
     public PGVideoCust(String first, String last, String address, String address2, String phone, String custID)
          firstName = first;
          lastName = last;
          streetAddress = address;
          cityStateZip = address2;
          phoneNumber = phone;
          ID = custID;
          videosOut.addElement("None");
     } //end customer
to a vector.. How can i go about searching the vector for ID not just searching for an object in the vector. I tried (vector is customers) customers.indexOf(12432) where 12432 is a valid ID of one of the objects in the vector but it returns -1 everytime.. Understand what I'm trying to do?

Answer 1

I understand. You need to look at each entry, cast as the object you expect it to be, then test the ID...
Vector stuff = new Vector(0);
for(int a = 0; a < stuff.size(); a++){
  // Will throw classCastException if not the right type.
  myObject X = (myObject)stuff.get(a);
  if(X.ID == mySearch){
    // You found it.
}In similar cases where I know that I'll be storing things based on some known criteria, like an ID, I prefer to use a Hashtable instead. The hashtable stores the goods and all you have to do is ask for the ID like this....
Hashtable HT = new Hashtable();
// Store your goodies...
HT.put(
  myCustomer.ID, // must be an Object so Integer not int
  myCustomer);
// get the goodies...
myCustomer = HT.get(theID // Again.  Integer);