How to print Arraylist in Java?

By Harish Gowda | | 4 minutes

In this tutorial we will learn how to print Arraylist in Java.

You must have printed Arraylist multiple times in your work.

But there are few other ways which you might have missed.

Let us explore them!!.

1.Using System.out.println

We can directly pass Arraylist object to System.out.println() to print it’s values

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package examples;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

public class App {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        List<String> names = new ArrayList<>();
        names.add("Harish");
        names.add("Shanu");
        names.add("Menaka");
        names.add("Jim");
        names.add("Tim");

        System.out.println(names); //[Harish, Shanu, Menaka, Jim, Tim]


    }
}

2.Using a for loop

We can use for loop to print all elements in the list by iterating through it.

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package examples;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

public class App {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        List<String> names = new ArrayList<>();
        names.add("Harish");
        names.add("Shanu");
        names.add("Menaka");
        names.add("Jim");
        names.add("Tim");

        for(int i=0;i<names.size();i++){
            System.out.print(names.get(i) +" "); //Harish Shanu Menaka Jim Tim
        }


    }
}

3. Enhanced for loop

You can use enhanced for loop for printing the ArrayList. Here you do not have to specify any index while iterating. Code is simple and concise while looping through list.

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package examples;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

public class App {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        List<String> names = new ArrayList<>();
        names.add("Harish");
        names.add("Shanu");
        names.add("Menaka");
        names.add("Jim");
        names.add("Tim");

        for(String name: names){
            System.out.print(name+" "); // Harish Shanu Menaka Jim Tim
        }


    }
}

4. Using forEach with lambda expression

Here one can use forEach method of collection in Java 8 which applies lambda expression to each element

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package examples;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

public class App {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        List<String> names = new ArrayList<>();
        names.add("Harish");
        names.add("Shanu");
        names.add("Menaka");
        names.add("Jim");
        names.add("Tim");

        names.forEach(name -> System.out.print(name +" "));
        //Harish Shanu Menaka Jim Tim


    }
}

5. Using Iterator

You can use Iterator old fashioned way!

But this iteration happens only in one direction.

  • .iterator() method returns the Iterator object.

  • .hasNext() checks if there are more elements.

  • .next() retrieves the next element.

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package examples;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.List;

public class App {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        List<String> names = new ArrayList<>();
        names.add("Harish");
        names.add("Shanu");
        names.add("Menaka");
        names.add("Jim");
        names.add("Tim");

        Iterator<String> iterator = names.iterator();
        while(iterator.hasNext()){
            System.out.print(iterator.next() +" "); //Harish Shanu Menaka Jim Tim
        }


    }
}

6. Using ListIterator

We can traverse Arraylist in both direction using ListIterator as shown in below example.

  • .hasNext() and .next() moves in forward direction.
  • .hasPrevious and .previous() moves in backward direction.
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package examples;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.ListIterator;

public class App {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        List<String> names = new ArrayList<>();
        names.add("Harish");
        names.add("Shanu");
        names.add("Menaka");
        names.add("Jim");
        names.add("Tim");

        ListIterator<String> iterator = names.listIterator();
        while(iterator.hasNext()){
            System.out.print(iterator.next() +" "); //Harish Shanu Menaka Jim Tim
        }
        System.out.println();

        while(iterator.hasPrevious()){
            System.out.print(iterator.previous() +" "); //Tim Jim Menaka Shanu Harish
        }


    }
}

7. Using String.join()

You can format the elements of the Arraylist using String.join() using your own delimiter.

In the below example delmiter ‘|’ is used to separate each element of the list.

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package examples;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

public class App {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        List<String> names = new ArrayList<>();
        names.add("Harish");
        names.add("Shanu");
        names.add("Menaka");
        names.add("Jim");
        names.add("Tim");

        System.out.println(String.join("|",names)); //Harish|Shanu|Menaka|Jim|Tim


    }
}

8. Using Collectors.joining()

In Java 8, we can use Collectors.joining() to join each elements of the Arraylist using custom delimiter.

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package examples;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.stream.Collectors;

public class App {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        List<String> names = new ArrayList<>();
        names.add("Harish");
        names.add("Shanu");
        names.add("Menaka");
        names.add("Jim");
        names.add("Tim");

        String result = names.stream().collect(Collectors.joining(","));
        System.out.println(result); //Harish,Shanu,Menaka,Jim,Tim


    }
}

Above were the different ways to print Arraylist in Java.

I hope this was helpful to you!!!