Size-limited queue that holds last N elements in Java

Question

Apache commons collections 4 has a CircularFifoQueue<> which is what you are looking for. Quoting the javadoc:

CircularFifoQueue is a first-in first-out queue with a fixed size that replaces its oldest element if full.

    import java.util.Queue;
    import org.apache.commons.collections4.queue.CircularFifoQueue;

    Queue<Integer> fifo = new CircularFifoQueue<Integer>(2);
    fifo.add(1);
    fifo.add(2);
    fifo.add(3);
    System.out.println(fifo);

    // Observe the result: 
    // [2, 3]

If you are using an older version of the Apache commons collections (3.x), you can use the CircularFifoBuffer which is basically the same thing without generics.

Update: updated answer following release of commons collections version 4 that supports generics.

Guava now has an EvictingQueue, a non-blocking queue which automatically evicts elements from the head of the queue when attempting to add new elements onto the queue and it is full.

import java.util.Queue;
import com.google.common.collect.EvictingQueue;

Queue<Integer> fifo = EvictingQueue.create(2); 
fifo.add(1); 
fifo.add(2); 
fifo.add(3); 
System.out.println(fifo); 

// Observe the result: 
// [2, 3]

I like @FractalizeR solution. But I would in addition keep and return the value from super.add(o)!

public class LimitedQueue<E> extends LinkedList<E> {

    private int limit;

    public LimitedQueue(int limit) {
        this.limit = limit;
    }

    @Override
    public boolean add(E o) {
        boolean added = super.add(o);
        while (added && size() > limit) {
           super.remove();
        }
        return added;
    }
}

Use composition not extends (yes I mean extends, as in a reference to the extends keyword in java and yes this is inheritance). Composition is superier because it completely shields your implementation, allowing you to change the implementation without impacting the users of your class.

I recommend trying something like this (I'm typing directly into this window, so buyer beware of syntax errors):

public LimitedSizeQueue implements Queue
{
  private int maxSize;
  private LinkedList storageArea;

  public LimitedSizeQueue(final int maxSize)
  {
    this.maxSize = maxSize;
    storageArea = new LinkedList();
  }

  public boolean offer(ElementType element)
  {
    if (storageArea.size() < maxSize)
    {
      storageArea.addFirst(element);
    }
    else
    {
      ... remove last element;
      storageArea.addFirst(element);
    }
  }

  ... the rest of this class

A better option (based on the answer by Asaf) might be to wrap the Apache Collections CircularFifoBuffer with a generic class. For example:

public LimitedSizeQueue<ElementType> implements Queue<ElementType>
{
    private int maxSize;
    private CircularFifoBuffer storageArea;

    public LimitedSizeQueue(final int maxSize)
    {
        if (maxSize > 0)
        {
            this.maxSize = maxSize;
            storateArea = new CircularFifoBuffer(maxSize);
        }
        else
        {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("blah blah blah");
        }
    }

    ... implement the Queue interface using the CircularFifoBuffer class
}

The only thing I know that has limited space is the BlockingQueue interface (which is e.g. implemented by the ArrayBlockingQueue class) - but they do not remove the first element if filled, but instead block the put operation until space is free (removed by other thread).

To my knowledge your trivial implementation is the easiest way to get such an behaviour.