Is Collections.syncronizedList effectively a vector?

Does Collections.syncronizedList(new ArrayList()) effectively makes the arrayList a vector? If no then what extra does it do? If yes then why was it introduced in the first place?

Thanks.

It provides a synchronized view (a wrapper) of any list. The differences:

• you can make a synchronized view of any list implementation. A synchronized LinkedList is not a Vector.
• the original list is not synchronized - only the view is.

1. It doesn't make a list something else, but wraps a List with something that looks like a list also, but contains no data except the wrapped list.
2. See 1.

Collections.synchronizedList(...) wraps synchronized access to the underlying list, but still retains the underlying list's characteristics in other ways. So for example, if you wrap a LinkedList, the iterator() remove() will be an efficient operation. (The same operation on a Vector is O(n).)

So the wrapper is absolutely not the same as a Vector.