List stuff = new ArrayList(); stuff.add("Apple"); stuff.add("Orange"); // what's the last item? Indexes are zero based! System.out.println(stuff.get(stuff.size() - 1)); // change the first item to a pear. stuff.set(0, "Pear"); // now iterate Iterator it = stuff.iterator(); while(it.hasNext()) { String item = (String)it.next(); System.out.println(item); }