Array or List in Java. Which is faster?

Question

I have to keep thousands of strings in memory to be accessed serially in Java. Should I store them in an array or should I use some kind of List ?

Since arrays keep

Answer 1

No, because technically, the array only stores the reference to the strings. The strings themselves are allocated in a different location. For a thousand items, I would say a list would be better, it is slower, but it offers more flexibility and it's easier to use, especially if you are going to resize them.