Best way to convert an ArrayList to a string

Answer 1

Most Java projects often have apache-commons lang available. StringUtils.join() methods is very nice and has several flavors to meet almost every need.

public static java.lang.String join(java.util.Collection collection,
                                    char separator)


public static String join(Iterator iterator, String separator) {
    // handle null, zero and one elements before building a buffer 
    Object first = iterator.next();
    if (!iterator.hasNext()) {
        return ObjectUtils.toString(first);
    }
    // two or more elements 
    StringBuffer buf = 
        new StringBuffer(256); // Java default is 16, probably too small 
    if (first != null) {
        buf.append(first);
    }
    while (iterator.hasNext()) {
        if (separator != null) {
            buf.append(separator);
        }
        Object obj = iterator.next();
        if (obj != null) {
            buf.append(obj);
        }
    }
    return buf.toString();
}

Parameters:

collection - the Collection of values to join together, may be null

separator - the separator character to use

Returns: the joined String, null if null iterator input

Since: 2.3