ArrayList object in Java
Java ArrayList Tutorial with ExamplesRajeev SinghJavaApril 20, 20184 mins read Show
ArrayList in Java is used to store dynamically sized collection of elements. Contrary to Arrays that are fixed in size, an ArrayList grows its size automatically when new elements are added to it. ArrayList is part of Javas collection framework and implements Javas List interface. Following are few key points to note about ArrayList in Java -
Creating an ArrayList and adding new elements to itThis example shows:
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
public class CreateArrayListExample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
// Creating an ArrayList of String
List<String> animals = new ArrayList<>();
// Adding new elements to the ArrayList
animals.add("Lion");
animals.add("Tiger");
animals.add("Cat");
animals.add("Dog");
System.out.println(animals);
// Adding an element at a particular index in an ArrayList
animals.add(2, "Elephant");
System.out.println(animals);
}
} # Output
[Lion, Tiger, Cat, Dog]
[Lion, Tiger, Elephant, Cat, Dog] Creating an ArrayList from another collectionThis example shows:
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
public class CreateArrayListFromCollectionExample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
List<Integer> firstFivePrimeNumbers = new ArrayList<>();
firstFivePrimeNumbers.add(2);
firstFivePrimeNumbers.add(3);
firstFivePrimeNumbers.add(5);
firstFivePrimeNumbers.add(7);
firstFivePrimeNumbers.add(11);
// Creating an ArrayList from another collection
List<Integer> firstTenPrimeNumbers = new ArrayList<>(firstFivePrimeNumbers);
List<Integer> nextFivePrimeNumbers = new ArrayList<>();
nextFivePrimeNumbers.add(13);
nextFivePrimeNumbers.add(17);
nextFivePrimeNumbers.add(19);
nextFivePrimeNumbers.add(23);
nextFivePrimeNumbers.add(29);
// Adding an entire collection to an ArrayList
firstTenPrimeNumbers.addAll(nextFivePrimeNumbers);
System.out.println(firstTenPrimeNumbers);
}
} # Output
[2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29] Accessing elements from an ArrayListThis example shows:
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
public class AccessElementsFromArrayListExample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
List<String> topCompanies = new ArrayList<>();
// Check if an ArrayList is empty
System.out.println("Is the topCompanies list empty? : " + topCompanies.isEmpty());
topCompanies.add("Google");
topCompanies.add("Apple");
topCompanies.add("Microsoft");
topCompanies.add("Amazon");
topCompanies.add("Facebook");
// Find the size of an ArrayList
System.out.println("Here are the top " + topCompanies.size() + " companies in the world");
System.out.println(topCompanies);
// Retrieve the element at a given index
String bestCompany = topCompanies.get(0);
String secondBestCompany = topCompanies.get(1);
String lastCompany = topCompanies.get(topCompanies.size() - 1);
System.out.println("Best Company: " + bestCompany);
System.out.println("Second Best Company: " + secondBestCompany);
System.out.println("Last Company in the list: " + lastCompany);
// Modify the element at a given index
topCompanies.set(4, "Walmart");
System.out.println("Modified top companies list: " + topCompanies);
}
} # Output
Is the topCompanies list empty? : true
Here are the top 5 companies in the world
[Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook]
Best Company: Google
Second Best Company: Apple
Last Company in the list: Facebook
Modified top companies list: [Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Walmart] Removing elements from an ArrayListThis example shows:
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.function.Predicate;
public class RemoveElementsFromArrayListExample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
List<String> programmingLanguages = new ArrayList<>();
programmingLanguages.add("C");
programmingLanguages.add("C++");
programmingLanguages.add("Java");
programmingLanguages.add("Kotlin");
programmingLanguages.add("Python");
programmingLanguages.add("Perl");
programmingLanguages.add("Ruby");
System.out.println("Initial List: " + programmingLanguages);
// Remove the element at index `5`
programmingLanguages.remove(5);
System.out.println("After remove(5): " + programmingLanguages);
// Remove the first occurrence of the given element from the ArrayList
// (The remove() method returns false if the element does not exist in the ArrayList)
boolean isRemoved = programmingLanguages.remove("Kotlin");
System.out.println("After remove(\"Kotlin\"): " + programmingLanguages);
// Remove all the elements that exist in a given collection
List<String> scriptingLanguages = new ArrayList<>();
scriptingLanguages.add("Python");
scriptingLanguages.add("Ruby");
scriptingLanguages.add("Perl");
programmingLanguages.removeAll(scriptingLanguages);
System.out.println("After removeAll(scriptingLanguages): " + programmingLanguages);
// Remove all the elements that satisfy the given predicate
programmingLanguages.removeIf(new Predicate<String>() {
@Override
public boolean test(String s) {
return s.startsWith("C");
}
});
/*
The above removeIf() call can also be written using lambda expression like this -
programmingLanguages.removeIf(s -> s.startsWith("C"))
*/
System.out.println("After Removing all elements that start with \"C\": " + programmingLanguages);
// Remove all elements from the ArrayList
programmingLanguages.clear();
System.out.println("After clear(): " + programmingLanguages);
}
} # Output
Initial List: [C, C++, Java, Kotlin, Python, Perl, Ruby]
After remove(5): [C, C++, Java, Kotlin, Python, Ruby]
After remove("Kotlin"): [C, C++, Java, Python, Ruby]
After removeAll(scriptingLanguages): [C, C++, Java]
After Removing all elements that start with "C": [Java]
After clear(): [] Iterating over an ArrayListThe following example shows how to iterate over an ArrayList using
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.ListIterator;
public class IterateOverArrayListExample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
List<String> tvShows = new ArrayList<>();
tvShows.add("Breaking Bad");
tvShows.add("Game Of Thrones");
tvShows.add("Friends");
tvShows.add("Prison break");
System.out.println("=== Iterate using Java 8 forEach and lambda ===");
tvShows.forEach(tvShow -> {
System.out.println(tvShow);
});
System.out.println("\n=== Iterate using an iterator() ===");
Iterator<String> tvShowIterator = tvShows.iterator();
while (tvShowIterator.hasNext()) {
String tvShow = tvShowIterator.next();
System.out.println(tvShow);
}
System.out.println("\n=== Iterate using an iterator() and Java 8 forEachRemaining() method ===");
tvShowIterator = tvShows.iterator();
tvShowIterator.forEachRemaining(tvShow -> {
System.out.println(tvShow);
});
System.out.println("\n=== Iterate using a listIterator() to traverse in both directions ===");
// Here, we start from the end of the list and traverse backwards.
ListIterator<String> tvShowListIterator = tvShows.listIterator(tvShows.size());
while (tvShowListIterator.hasPrevious()) {
String tvShow = tvShowListIterator.previous();
System.out.println(tvShow);
}
System.out.println("\n=== Iterate using simple for-each loop ===");
for(String tvShow: tvShows) {
System.out.println(tvShow);
}
System.out.println("\n=== Iterate using for loop with index ===");
for(int i = 0; i < tvShows.size(); i++) {
System.out.println(tvShows.get(i));
}
}
} # Output
=== Iterate using Java 8 forEach and lambda ===
Breaking Bad
Game Of Thrones
Friends
Prison break
=== Iterate using an iterator() ===
Breaking Bad
Game Of Thrones
Friends
Prison break
=== Iterate using an iterator() and Java 8 forEachRemaining() method ===
Breaking Bad
Game Of Thrones
Friends
Prison break
=== Iterate using a listIterator() to traverse in both directions ===
Prison break
Friends
Game Of Thrones
Breaking Bad
=== Iterate using simple for-each loop ===
Breaking Bad
Game Of Thrones
Friends
Prison break
=== Iterate using for loop with index ===
Breaking Bad
Game Of Thrones
Friends
Prison break The iterator() and listIterator() methods are useful when you need to modify the ArrayList while traversing. Consider the following example, where we remove elements from the ArrayList using iterator.remove() method while traversing through it - import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.List;
public class ArrayListIteratorRemoveExample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
List<Integer> numbers = new ArrayList<>();
numbers.add(13);
numbers.add(18);
numbers.add(25);
numbers.add(40);
Iterator<Integer> numbersIterator = numbers.iterator();
while (numbersIterator.hasNext()) {
Integer num = numbersIterator.next();
if(num % 2 != 0) {
numbersIterator.remove();
}
}
System.out.println(numbers);
}
} # Output
[18, 40] Searching for elements in an ArrayListThe example below shows how to:
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
public class SearchElementsInArrayListExample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
List<String> names = new ArrayList<>();
names.add("John");
names.add("Alice");
names.add("Bob");
names.add("Steve");
names.add("John");
names.add("Steve");
names.add("Maria");
// Check if an ArrayList contains a given element
System.out.println("Does names array contain \"Bob\"? : " + names.contains("Bob"));
// Find the index of the first occurrence of an element in an ArrayList
System.out.println("indexOf \"Steve\": " + names.indexOf("Steve"));
System.out.println("indexOf \"Mark\": " + names.indexOf("Mark"));
// Find the index of the last occurrence of an element in an ArrayList
System.out.println("lastIndexOf \"John\" : " + names.lastIndexOf("John"));
System.out.println("lastIndexOf \"Bill\" : " + names.lastIndexOf("Bill"));
}
} # Output
Does names array contain "Bob"? : true
indexOf "Steve": 3
indexOf "Mark": -1
lastIndexOf "John" : 4
lastIndexOf "Bill" : -1 ArrayList of user defined objectsSince ArrayList supports generics, you can create an ArrayList of any type. It can be of simple types like Integer, String, Double or complex types like an ArrayList of ArrayLists, or an ArrayList of HashMaps or an ArrayList of any user defined objects. In the following example, youll learn how to create an ArrayList of user defined objects. import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
class User {
private String name;
private int age;
public User(String name, int age) {
this.name = name;
this.age = age;
}
public String getName() {
return name;
}
public void setName(String name) {
this.name = name;
}
public int getAge() {
return age;
}
public void setAge(int age) {
this.age = age;
}
}
public class ArrayListUserDefinedObjectExample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
List<User> users = new ArrayList<>();
users.add(new User("Rajeev", 25));
users.add(new User("John", 34));
users.add(new User("Steve", 29));
users.forEach(user -> {
System.out.println("Name : " + user.getName() + ", Age : " + user.getAge());
});
}
} # Output
Name : Rajeev, Age : 25
Name : John, Age : 34
Name : Steve, Age : 29 Sorting an ArrayListSorting an ArrayList is a very common task that you will encounter in your programs. In this section, Ill show you how to -
1. Sort an ArrayList using Collections.sort() methodimport java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.List;
public class ArrayListCollectionsSortExample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
List<Integer> numbers = new ArrayList<>();
numbers.add(13);
numbers.add(7);
numbers.add(18);
numbers.add(5);
numbers.add(2);
System.out.println("Before : " + numbers);
// Sorting an ArrayList using Collections.sort() method
Collections.sort(numbers);
System.out.println("After : " + numbers);
}
} # Output
Before : [13, 7, 18, 5, 2]
After : [2, 5, 7, 13, 18] 2. Sort an ArrayList using ArrayList.sort() methodimport java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Comparator;
import java.util.List;
public class ArrayListSortExample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
List<String> names = new ArrayList<>();
names.add("Lisa");
names.add("Jennifer");
names.add("Mark");
names.add("David");
System.out.println("Names : " + names);
// Sort an ArrayList using its sort() method. You must pass a Comparator to the ArrayList.sort() method.
names.sort(new Comparator<String>() {
@Override
public int compare(String name1, String name2) {
return name1.compareTo(name2);
}
});
// The above `sort()` method call can also be written simply using lambda expression
names.sort((name1, name2) -> name1.compareTo(name2));
// Following is an even more concise solution
names.sort(Comparator.naturalOrder());
System.out.println("Sorted Names : " + names);
}
} # Output
Names : [Lisa, Jennifer, Mark, David]
Sorted Names : [David, Jennifer, Lisa, Mark] 3. Sort an ArrayList of Objects using custom Comparatorimport java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.Comparator;
import java.util.List;
class Person {
private String name;
private Integer age;
public Person(String name, Integer age) {
this.name = name;
this.age = age;
}
public String getName() {
return name;
}
public void setName(String name) {
this.name = name;
}
public Integer getAge() {
return age;
}
public void setAge(Integer age) {
this.age = age;
}
@Override
public String toString() {
return "{" +
"name='" + name + '\'' +
", age=" + age +
'}';
}
}
public class ArrayListObjectSortExample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
List<Person> people = new ArrayList<>();
people.add(new Person("Sachin", 47));
people.add(new Person("Chris", 34));
people.add(new Person("Rajeev", 25));
people.add(new Person("David", 31));
System.out.println("Person List : " + people);
// Sort People by their Age
people.sort((person1, person2) -> {
return person1.getAge() - person2.getAge();
});
// A more concise way of writing the above sorting function
people.sort(Comparator.comparingInt(Person::getAge));
System.out.println("Sorted Person List by Age : " + people);
// You can also sort using Collections.sort() method by passing the custom Comparator
Collections.sort(people, Comparator.comparing(Person::getName));
System.out.println("Sorted Person List by Name : " + people);
}
} # Output
Person List : [{name='Sachin', age=47}, {name='Chris', age=34}, {name='Rajeev', age=25}, {name='David', age=31}]
Sorted Person List by Age : [{name='Rajeev', age=25}, {name='David', age=31}, {name='Chris', age=34}, {name='Sachin', age=47}]
Sorted Person List by Name : [{name='Chris', age=34}, {name='David', age=31}, {name='Rajeev', age=25}, {name='Sachin', age=47}] Synchronizing Access to an ArrayListThe ArrayList class is not synchronized. If multiple threads try to modify an ArrayList at the same time then the final result becomes not-deterministic because one thread might override the changes done by another thread. Example Demonstrating ArrayLists unpredictable behavior in multi-threaded environmentsThe following example shows what happens when multiple threads try to modify an ArrayList at the same time. import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.concurrent.ExecutorService;
import java.util.concurrent.Executors;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
public class UnsafeArrayListExample {
public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {
List<Integer> unsafeArrayList = new ArrayList<>();
unsafeArrayList.add(1);
unsafeArrayList.add(2);
unsafeArrayList.add(3);
// Create a thread pool of size 10
ExecutorService executorService = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(10);
// Create a Runnable task that increments each element of the ArrayList by one
Runnable task = () -> {
incrementArrayList(unsafeArrayList);
};
// Submit the task to the executor service 100 times.
// All the tasks will modify the ArrayList concurrently
for(int i = 0; i < 100; i++) {
executorService.submit(task);
}
executorService.shutdown();
executorService.awaitTermination(60, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
System.out.println(unsafeArrayList);
}
// Increment all the values in the ArrayList by one
private static void incrementArrayList(List<Integer> unsafeArrayList) {
for(int i = 0; i < unsafeArrayList.size(); i++) {
Integer value = unsafeArrayList.get(i);
unsafeArrayList.set(i, value + 1);
}
}
} The final output of the above program should be equal to [101, 102, 103] because were incrementing the values in the ArrayList 100 times. But if you run the program, it will produce different output every time it is run - # Output
[96, 96, 98] Try running the above program multiple times and see how it produces different outputs. To learn more about such issues in multi-threaded programs, check out my article on Java Concurrency Issues and Thread Synchronization. Example demonstrating how to synchronize concurrent modifications to an ArrayListAll right! Now lets see how we can synchronize access to the ArrayList in multi-threaded environments. The following example shows the synchronized version of the previous example. Unlike the previous program, the output of this program is deterministic and will always be the same. import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.concurrent.ExecutorService;
import java.util.concurrent.Executors;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
public class SynchronizedArrayListExample {
public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {
List<Integer> safeArrayList = Collections.synchronizedList(new ArrayList<>());
safeArrayList.add(1);
safeArrayList.add(2);
safeArrayList.add(3);
// Create a thread pool of size 10
ExecutorService executorService = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(10);
// Create a Runnable task that increments each element of the ArrayList by one
Runnable task = () -> {
incrementArrayList(safeArrayList);
};
// Submit the task to the executor service 100 times.
// All the tasks will modify the ArrayList concurrently
for(int i = 0; i < 100; i++) {
executorService.submit(task);
}
executorService.shutdown();
executorService.awaitTermination(60, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
System.out.println(safeArrayList);
}
// Increment all the values in the ArrayList by one
private static void incrementArrayList(List<Integer> safeArrayList) {
synchronized (safeArrayList) {
for (int i = 0; i < safeArrayList.size(); i++) {
Integer value = safeArrayList.get(i);
safeArrayList.set(i, value + 1);
}
}
}
} # Output
[101, 102, 103] The above example uses Collections.synchronizedList() method to get a synchronized view of the ArrayList. Moreover, the modifications to the ArrayList inside the incrementArrayList() method is wrapped inside a synchronized block. This ensures that no two threads can increment ArrayList elements at the same time. You can also use a CopyOnWriteArrayList if you need thread safety. It is a thread-safe version of the ArrayList class. It implements all the mutating operations by making a fresh copy of the ArrayList. ConclusionThats all folks. In this article, you learned what is an ArrayList, how to create an ArrayList, how to add, modify and remove elements from an ArrayList, how to iterate over an ArrayList, how to sort an ArrayList, and how to synchronize access to an ArrayList. Thank you for reading. See you in the next post.
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