Size-limited queue that holds last N elements in Java

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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.

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