Whenever you need an introduction to something in Java, one place you
can usually get started is the Java glossary.  It will give you an
overview and point you to more detailed information, and usually give
you a brief code sample of the basic operations.
http://mindprod.com/jgloss/jgloss.html

Just look up the word, in this case Vector.

http://mindprod.com/jgloss/vector.html

It will suggest you try ArrayList instead.

In general, consider using ArrayList instead of Vector. It basically
does the same, but ArrayList is in general a faster.

Regarding the initialization of a Vector (or ArrayList):

Since Java 1.2:

    Vector v = new Vector(Arrays.asList(<array-of-elements>));
or
    Vector v = new Vector();
    v.addAll(Arrays.asList(<array-of-elements>));

or a simple loop with calls to add().

In Java 1.5 you an also do (the stuff above also works):

    Vector v = new Vector();
    Collections.addAll(v, <array-or-varlist-of-elements>);

The 1.5 documentation claims this can be faster than Arrays.asList(). In
1.5. Arrays.asList() also allows a variable length list as argument.

/Thomas