If there are mistakes in personal experience summary, please correct them.

Array is a variable array that implements the List interface. It has the characteristics of array. The search is relatively fast, and subsequent addition and deletion operations will move elements, so the speed is relatively slow. ArrayList can store not only normal elements, but also null values. Because it is based on the array structure, the element corresponds to the index to find, and the storable repeating element includes null value.

1.ArrayList bottom layer: array structure

    /**
     * The array buffer into which the elements of the ArrayList are stored.
     * The capacity of the ArrayList is the length of this array buffer. Any
     * empty ArrayList with elementData == DEFAULTCAPACITY_EMPTY_ELEMENTDATA
     * will be expanded to DEFAULT_CAPACITY when the first element is added.
     */
    transient Object[] elementData; // non-private to simplify nested class access

2. Default initial length is 10

    /**
     * Default initial capacity.
     */
    private static final int DEFAULT_CAPACITY = 10;

3. Three construction methods

    /**
     * Constructs an empty list with the specified initial capacity.
     *
     * @param  initialCapacity  the initial capacity of the list
     * @throws IllegalArgumentException if the specified initial capacity
     *         is negative
     */
    public ArrayList(int initialCapacity) {
        if (initialCapacity > 0) {
            this.elementData = new Object[initialCapacity];
        } else if (initialCapacity == 0) {
            this.elementData = EMPTY_ELEMENTDATA;
        } else {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Illegal Capacity: "+
                                               initialCapacity);
        }
    }

    /**
     * Constructs an empty list with an initial capacity of ten.
     */
    public ArrayList() {
        this.elementData = DEFAULTCAPACITY_EMPTY_ELEMENTDATA;
    }

    /**
     * Constructs a list containing the elements of the specified
     * collection, in the order they are returned by the collection's
     * iterator.
     *
     * @param c the collection whose elements are to be placed into this list
     * @throws NullPointerException if the specified collection is null
     */
    public ArrayList(Collection<? extends E> c) {
        elementData = c.toArray();
        if ((size = elementData.length) != 0) {
            // c.toArray might (incorrectly) not return Object[] (see 6260652)
            if (elementData.getClass() != Object[].class)
                elementData = Arrays.copyOf(elementData, size, Object[].class);
        } else {
            // replace with empty array.
            this.elementData = EMPTY_ELEMENTDATA;
        }
    }

4. Expansion principle

ArrayList automatically expands capacity. First, create a new ArrayList, and then put the elements of the old array into the new array. Each expansion shall be in accordance with

newCapacity = (oldCapacity * 3)/2 + 1;

Therefore, the capacity of each array expansion is 1.5 times of the original capacity.

Public void ensureCapacity(int minCapacity) {  
    modCount++;  
    int oldCapacity = elementData.length;  
    if (minCapacity > oldCapacity) {  
        Object oldData[] = elementData;  
        int newCapacity = (oldCapacity * 3)/2 + 1;  
            if (newCapacity < minCapacity)  
                newCapacity = minCapacity;  
      // minCapacity is usually close to size, so this is a win:  
      elementData = Arrays.copyOf(elementData, newCapacity);  
    }  
}