Collections in Java- Java List - Daily Developer Blog

List in Java provides the facility to maintain the ordered collection. It contains the index-based methods to insert, update, delete and search the elements. It can have the duplicate elements also. We can also store the null elements in the list.

The List interface is found in the java.util package and inherits the Collection interface. It is a factory of ListIterator interface. Through the ListIterator, we can iterate the list in forward and backward directions. The implementation classes of List interface are ArrayList, LinkedList, Stack and Vector. The ArrayList and LinkedList are widely used in Java programming. The Vector class is deprecated since Java 5.

List Interface declaration

public interface List<E> extends Collection<E>

Java List Methods

Method Description

void add(int index, E element) It is used to insert the specified element at the specified position in a list.

boolean add(E e) It is used to append the specified element at the end of a list.

boolean addAll(Collection<? extends E> c) It is used to append all of the elements in the specified collection to the end of a list.

boolean addAll(int index, Collection<? extends E> c) It is used to append all the elements in the specified collection, starting at the specified position of the list.

void clear() It is used to remove all of the elements from this list.

boolean equals(Object o) It is used to compare the specified object with the elements of a list.

int hashcode() It is used to return the hash code value for a list.

E get(int index) It is used to fetch the element from the particular position of the list.

boolean isEmpty() It returns true if the list is empty, otherwise false.

int lastIndexOf(Object o) It is used to return the index in this list of the last occurrence of the specified element, or -1 if the list does not contain this element.

Object[] toArray() It is used to return an array containing all of the elements in this list in the correct order.

<T> T[]

Java List vs ArrayList

List is an interface whereas ArrayList is the implementation class of List.

How to create List

The ArrayList and LinkedList classes provide the implementation of List interface. Let’s see the examples to create the List:

//Creating a List of type String using ArrayList  
List<String> list=new ArrayList<String>();  
  
//Creating a List of type Integer using ArrayList  
List<Integer> list=new ArrayList<Integer>();  
  
//Creating a List of type Book using ArrayList  
List<Book> list=new ArrayList<Book>();  
  
//Creating a List of type String using LinkedList  
List<String> list=new LinkedList<String>();

In short, you can create the List of any type. The ArrayList<T> and LinkedList<T> classes are used to specify the type. Here, T denotes the type.

Java List Example

Let’s see a simple example of List where we are using the ArrayList class as the implementation.

import java.util.*;  
public class ListExample1{  
public static void main(String args[]){  
 //Creating a List  
 List<String> list=new ArrayList<String>();  
 //Adding elements in the List  
 list.add("Mango");  
 list.add("Apple");  
 list.add("Banana");  
 list.add("Grapes");  
 //Iterating the List element using for-each loop  
 for(String fruit:list)  
  System.out.println(fruit);  
  
}  
}

Test it Now

Output:

Mango
Apple
Banana
Grapes

How to convert Array to List

We can convert the Array to List by traversing the array and adding the element in list one by one using list.add() method. Let’s see a simple example to convert array elements into List.

import java.util.*;  
public class ArrayToListExample{  
public static void main(String args[]){  
//Creating Array  
String[] array={"Java","Python","PHP","C++"};  
System.out.println("Printing Array: "+Arrays.toString(array));  
//Converting Array to List  
List<String> list=new ArrayList<String>();  
for(String lang:array){  
list.add(lang);  
}  
System.out.println("Printing List: "+list);  
  
}  
}

Test it Now

Output:

Printing Array: [Java, Python, PHP, C++]
Printing List: [Java, Python, PHP, C++]

How to convert List to Array

We can convert the List to Array by calling the list.toArray() method. Let’s see a simple example to convert list elements into array.

import java.util.*;  
public class ListToArrayExample{  
public static void main(String args[]){  
 List<String> fruitList = new ArrayList<>();    
 fruitList.add("Mango");    
 fruitList.add("Banana");    
 fruitList.add("Apple");    
 fruitList.add("Strawberry");    
 //Converting ArrayList to Array  
 String[] array = fruitList.toArray(new String[fruitList.size()]);    
 System.out.println("Printing Array: "+Arrays.toString(array));  
 System.out.println("Printing List: "+fruitList);  
}  
}

Test it Now

Output:

Printing Array: [Mango, Banana, Apple, Strawberry]
Printing List: [Mango, Banana, Apple, Strawberry]

Get and Set Element in List

The get() method returns the element at the given index, whereas the set() method changes or replaces the element.

import java.util.*;  
public class ListExample2{  
 public static void main(String args[]){  
 //Creating a List  
 List<String> list=new ArrayList<String>();  
 //Adding elements in the List  
 list.add("Mango");  
 list.add("Apple");  
 list.add("Banana");  
 list.add("Grapes");  
 //accessing the element    
 System.out.println("Returning element: "+list.get(1));//it will return the 2nd element, because index starts from 0  
 //changing the element  
 list.set(1,"Dates");  
 //Iterating the List element using for-each loop  
 for(String fruit:list)  
  System.out.println(fruit);  
  
 }  
}

Test it Now

Output:

Returning element: Apple
Mango
Dates
Banana
Grapes

How to Sort List

There are various ways to sort the List, here we are going to use Collections.sort() method to sort the list element. The java.util package provides a utility class Collections which has the static method sort(). Using the Collections.sort() method, we can easily sort any List.

import java.util.*;  
class SortArrayList{  
 public static void main(String args[]){  
  //Creating a list of fruits  
  List<String> list1=new ArrayList<String>();  
  list1.add("Mango");  
  list1.add("Apple");  
  list1.add("Banana");  
  list1.add("Grapes");  
  //Sorting the list  
  Collections.sort(list1);  
   //Traversing list through the for-each loop  
  for(String fruit:list1)  
    System.out.println(fruit);  
      
 System.out.println("Sorting numbers...");  
  //Creating a list of numbers  
  List<Integer> list2=new ArrayList<Integer>();  
  list2.add(21);  
  list2.add(11);  
  list2.add(51);  
  list2.add(1);  
  //Sorting the list  
  Collections.sort(list2);  
   //Traversing list through the for-each loop  
  for(Integer number:list2)  
    System.out.println(number);  
 }  
   
}

Output:

Apple
Banana
Grapes
Mango
Sorting numbers...
1
11
21
51

Java ListIterator Interface

ListIterator Interface is used to traverse the element in a backward and forward direction.

ListIterator Interface declaration

public interface ListIterator<E> extends Iterator<E>

Methods of Java ListIterator Interface:

Method	Description
void add(E e)	This method inserts the specified element into the list.
boolean hasNext()	This method returns true if the list iterator has more elements while traversing the list in the forward direction.
E next()	This method returns the next element in the list and advances the cursor position.
int nextIndex()	This method returns the index of the element that would be returned by a subsequent call to next()
boolean hasPrevious()	This method returns true if this list iterator has more elements while traversing the list in the reverse direction.
E previous()	This method returns the previous element in the list and moves the cursor position backward.
E previousIndex()	This method returns the index of the element that would be returned by a subsequent call to previous().
void remove()	This method removes the last element from the list that was returned by next() or previous() methods
void set(E e)	This method replaces the last element returned by next() or previous() methods with the specified element.

Example of ListIterator Interface

import java.util.*;  
public class ListIteratorExample1{  
public static void main(String args[]){  
List<String> al=new ArrayList<String>();    
        al.add("Amit");    
        al.add("Vijay");    
        al.add("Kumar");    
        al.add(1,"Sachin");    
        ListIterator<String> itr=al.listIterator();    
        System.out.println("Traversing elements in forward direction");    
        while(itr.hasNext()){    
              
        System.out.println("index:"+itr.nextIndex()+" value:"+itr.next());    
        }    
        System.out.println("Traversing elements in backward direction");    
        while(itr.hasPrevious()){    
          
        System.out.println("index:"+itr.previousIndex()+" value:"+itr.previous());    
        }    
}  
}

Output:

Traversing elements in forward direction
index:0 value:Amit
index:1 value:Sachin
index:2 value:Vijay
index:3 value:Kumar
Traversing elements in backward direction
index:3 value:Kumar
index:2 value:Vijay
index:1 value:Sachin
index:0 value:Amit

Example of List: Book

Let’s see an example of List where we are adding the Books.

import java.util.*;  
class Book {  
int id;  
String name,author,publisher;  
int quantity;  
public Book(int id, String name, String author, String publisher, int quantity) {  
    this.id = id;  
    this.name = name;  
    this.author = author;  
    this.publisher = publisher;  
    this.quantity = quantity;  
}  
}  
public class ListExample5 {  
public static void main(String[] args) {  
    //Creating list of Books  
    List<Book> list=new ArrayList<Book>();  
    //Creating Books  
    Book b1=new Book(101,"Let us C","Yashwant Kanetkar","BPB",8);  
    Book b2=new Book(102,"Data Communications and Networking","Forouzan","Mc Graw Hill",4);  
    Book b3=new Book(103,"Operating System","Galvin","Wiley",6);  
    //Adding Books to list  
    list.add(b1);  
    list.add(b2);  
    list.add(b3);  
    //Traversing list  
    for(Book b:list){  
    System.out.println(b.id+" "+b.name+" "+b.author+" "+b.publisher+" "+b.quantity);  
    }  
}  
}

Test it Now

Output:

101 Let us C Yashwant Kanetkar BPB 8
102 Data Communications and Networking Forouzan Mc Graw Hill 4
103 Operating System Galvin Wiley 6

Java ListIterator Interface

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