How do I determine whether an array contains a particular value in Java?

Question

I have a String[] with values like so:

public static final String[] VALUES = new String[] {\"AB\",\"BC\",\"CD\",\"AE\"};

Given

Answer 1

Use the following (the contains() method is ArrayUtils.in() in this code):

ObjectUtils.java

public class ObjectUtils{

    /**
     * A null safe method to detect if two objects are equal.
     * @param object1
     * @param object2
     * @return true if either both objects are null, or equal, else returns false.
     */
    public static boolean equals(Object object1, Object object2){
        return object1==null ? object2==null : object1.equals(object2);
    }

}

ArrayUtils.java

public class ArrayUtils{

    /**
     * Find the index of of an object is in given array, starting from given inclusive index.
     * @param ts  Array to be searched in.
     * @param t  Object to be searched.
     * @param start  The index from where the search must start.
     * @return Index of the given object in the array if it is there, else -1.
     */
    public static  int indexOf(final T[] ts, final T t, int start){
        for(int i = start; i < ts.length; ++i)
            if(ObjectUtils.equals(ts[i], t))
                return i;
        return -1;
    }

    /**
     * Find the index of of an object is in given array, starting from 0;
     * @param ts  Array to be searched in.
     * @param t  Object to be searched.
     * @return  indexOf(ts, t, 0)
     */
    public static  int indexOf(final T[] ts, final T t){
        return indexOf(ts, t, 0);
    }

    /**
     * Detect if the given object is in the given array.
     * @param ts  Array to be searched in.
     * @param t  Object to be searched.
     * @return  If indexOf(ts, t) is greater than -1.
     */
    public static  boolean in(final T[] ts, final T t){
        return indexOf(ts, t) > -1 ;
    }

}

As you can see in the code above, that there are other utility methods ObjectUtils.equals() and ArrayUtils.indexOf(), that were used at other places as well.