Converting 'ArrayList<String> to 'String[]' in Java

Question

How might I convert an ArrayList<String> object to a String[] array in Java?

Answer 1

List<String> list = ..;
String[] array = list.toArray(new String[0]);

For example:

List<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
//add some stuff
list.add("android");
list.add("apple");
String[] stringArray = list.toArray(new String[0]);

The toArray() method without passing any argument returns Object[]. So you have to pass an array as an argument, which will be filled with the data from the list, and returned. You can pass an empty array as well, but you can also pass an array with the desired size.

Important update: Originally the code above used new String[list.size()]. However, this blogpost reveals that due to JVM optimizations, using new String[0] is better now.

Answer 2

List <String> list = ...
String[] array = new String[list.size()];
int i=0;
for(String s: list){
  array[i++] = s;
}

Answer 3

ArrayList<String> arrayList = new ArrayList<String>();
Object[] objectList = arrayList.toArray();
String[] stringArray =  Arrays.copyOf(objectList,objectList.length,String[].class);

Using copyOf, ArrayList to arrays might be done also.

Answer 4

This is enough:

int[] d = new int[list.size()];

for (int i = 0; i < list.size(); i++) {
    d[i] = list.get(i);
}

Answer 5

By using toArray() method of ArrayList you can get 0bject[]. Cast that Object[] to String[] Here the sample code:

ArrayList<String> arr_List=new ArrayList<String>();
Object[] str_Arr=arr_List.toArray();

Answer 6

An alternative in Java 8:

String[] strings = list.stream().toArray(String[]::new);

Answer 7

You can use the toArray() method for List:

ArrayList<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();

list.add("apple");
list.add("banana");

String[] array = list.toArray(new String[list.size()]);

Or you can manually add the elements to an array:

ArrayList<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();

list.add("apple");
list.add("banana");

String[] array = new String[list.size()];

for (int i = 0; i < list.size(); i++) {
    array[i] = list.get(i);
}

Hope this helps!

Answer 8

In Java 8:

String[] strings = list.parallelStream().toArray(String[]::new);

Answer 9

in case some extra manipulation of the data is desired, for which the user wants a function, this approach is not perfect (as it requires passing the class of the element as second parameter), but works:

import java.util.ArrayList; import java.lang.reflect.Array;

public class Test {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    ArrayList<Integer> al = new ArrayList<>();
    al.add(1);
    al.add(2);
    Integer[] arr = convert(al, Integer.class);
    for (int i=0; i<arr.length; i++)
      System.out.println(arr[i]);
  }

  public static <T> T[] convert(ArrayList<T> al, Class clazz) {
    return (T[]) al.toArray((T[])Array.newInstance(clazz, al.size()));
  }
}

Answer 10

Generics solution to covert any List<Type> to String []:

public static  <T> String[] listToArray(List<T> list) {
    String [] array = new String[list.size()];
    for (int i = 0; i < array.length; i++)
        array[i] = list.get(i).toString();
    return array;
}

Note You must override toString() method.

class Car {
  private String name;
  public Car(String name) {
    this.name = name;
  }
  public String toString() {
    return name;
  }
}
final List<Car> carList = new ArrayList<Car>();
carList.add(new Car("BMW"))
carList.add(new Car("Mercedes"))
carList.add(new Car("Skoda"))
final String[] carArray = listToArray(carList);

Answer 11

You can use Iterator<String> to iterate the elements of the ArrayList<String>:

ArrayList<String> list = new ArrayList<>();
String[] array = new String[list.size()];
int i = 0;
for (Iterator<String> iterator = list.iterator(); iterator.hasNext(); i++) {
    array[i] = iterator.next();
}

Now you can retrive elements from String[] using any Loop.

Answer 12

private String[] prepareDeliveryArray(List<DeliveryServiceModel> deliveryServices) {
    String[] delivery = new String[deliveryServices.size()];
    for (int i = 0; i < deliveryServices.size(); i++) {
        delivery[i] = deliveryServices.get(i).getName();
    }
    return delivery;
}

Answer 13

If your application is already using Apache Commons lib, you can slightly modify the accepted answer to not create a new empty array each time:

List<String> list = ..;
String[] array = list.toArray(ArrayUtils.EMPTY_STRING_ARRAY);

// or if using static import
String[] array = list.toArray(EMPTY_STRING_ARRAY);

There are a few more preallocated empty arrays of different types in ArrayUtils.

Also we can trick JVM to create en empty array for us this way:

String[] array = list.toArray(ArrayUtils.toArray());

// or if using static import
String[] array = list.toArray(toArray());

But there's really no advantage this way, just a matter of taste, IMO.

Answer 14

You can convert List to String array by using this method:

 Object[] stringlist=list.toArray();

The complete example:

ArrayList<String> list=new ArrayList<>();
    list.add("Abc");
    list.add("xyz");

    Object[] stringlist=list.toArray();

    for(int i = 0; i < stringlist.length ; i++)
    {
          Log.wtf("list data:",(String)stringlist[i]);
    }

Answer 15

Starting from JDK/11, one can alternatively use the API Collection.toArray(IntFunction<T[]> generator) to achieve the same as:

List<String> list = List.of("x","y","z");
String[] arrayBeforeJDK11 = list.toArray(new String[0]);
String[] arrayAfterJDK11 = list.toArray(String[]::new); // similar to Stream.toArray

Answer 16

In Java 8, it can be done using

String[] arrayFromList = fromlist.stream().toArray(String[]::new);

Answer 17

In Java 11, we can use the Collection.toArray(generator) method. The following code will create a new array of strings:

List<String> list = List.of("one", "two", "three");
String[] array = list.toArray(String[]::new)

from java.base's java.util.Collection.toArray().

Answer 18

    List<String> list = new ArrayList<>();
    list.add("a");
    list.add("b");
    list.add("c");
    String [] strArry= list.stream().toArray(size -> new String[size]);

First, List is converted to a String stream. Then it uses Stream.toArray to return an array containing the elements of the String stream. "size -> new String[size]" is an IntFunction function that allocates a String array with size of the String stream. It can be rearranged as

IntFunction<String []> allocateFunc = size -> { 
return new String[size];
};   
String [] strArry= list.stream().toArray(allocateFunc);