Simple way to compare 2 ArrayLists

Question

I have 2 arraylists of string object.

List sourceList = new ArrayList();
List destinationList = new ArrayList

        

Answer 1

If your requirement is to maintain the insertion order plus check the contents of the two arraylist then you should do following:

List<String> listOne = new ArrayList<String>();
List<String> listTwo = new ArrayList<String>();

listOne.add("stack");
listOne.add("overflow");

listTwo.add("stack");
listTwo.add("overflow");

boolean result = Arrays.equals(listOne.toArray(),listTwo.toArray());

This will return true.

However, if you change the ordering for example:

listOne.add("stack");
listOne.add("overflow");

listTwo.add("overflow");
listTwo.add("stack");

boolean result = Arrays.equals(listOne.toArray(),listTwo.toArray());

will return false as ordering is different.

Answer 2

Convert Lists to Collection and use removeAll

    Collection<String> listOne = new ArrayList(Arrays.asList("a","b", "c", "d", "e", "f", "g"));
    Collection<String> listTwo = new ArrayList(Arrays.asList("a","b",  "d", "e", "f", "gg", "h"));


    List<String> sourceList = new ArrayList<String>(listOne);
    List<String> destinationList = new ArrayList<String>(listTwo);


    sourceList.removeAll( listTwo );
    destinationList.removeAll( listOne );



    System.out.println( sourceList );
    System.out.println( destinationList );

Output:

[c, g]
[gg, h]

[EDIT]

other way (more clear)

  Collection<String> list = new ArrayList(Arrays.asList("a","b", "c", "d", "e", "f", "g"));

    List<String> sourceList = new ArrayList<String>(list);
    List<String> destinationList = new ArrayList<String>(list);

    list.add("boo");
    list.remove("b");

    sourceList.removeAll( list );
    list.removeAll( destinationList );


    System.out.println( sourceList );
    System.out.println( list );

Output:

[b]
[boo]

Answer 3

List<String> oldList = Arrays.asList("a", "b", "c", "d", "e", "f");
List<String> modifiedList = Arrays.asList("a", "b", "c", "d", "e", "g");

List<String> added = new HashSet<>(modifiedList);
List<String> removed = new HashSet<>(oldList);

modifiedList.stream().filter(removed::remove).forEach(added::remove);

// added items
System.out.println(added);
// removed items
System.out.println(removed);

Answer 4

Convert the List in to String and check whether the Strings are same or not

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



/**
 * @author Rakesh KR
 *
 */
public class ListCompare {

    public static boolean compareList(List ls1,List ls2){
        return ls1.toString().contentEquals(ls2.toString())?true:false;
    }
    public static void main(String[] args) {

        ArrayList<String> one  = new ArrayList<String>();
        ArrayList<String> two  = new ArrayList<String>();

        one.add("one");
        one.add("two");
        one.add("six");

        two.add("one");
        two.add("two");
        two.add("six");

        System.out.println("Output1 :: "+compareList(one,two));

        two.add("ten");

        System.out.println("Output2 :: "+compareList(one,two));
    }
}

Answer 5

This should check if two lists are equal, it does some basic checks first (i.e. nulls and lengths), then sorts and uses the collections.equals method to check if they are equal.

public  boolean equalLists(List<String> a, List<String> b){     
    // Check for sizes and nulls

    if (a == null && b == null) return true;


    if ((a == null && b!= null) || (a != null && b== null) || (a.size() != b.size()))
    {
        return false;
    }

    // Sort and compare the two lists          
    Collections.sort(a);
    Collections.sort(b);      
    return a.equals(b);
}

Answer 6

boolean isEquals(List<String> firstList, List<String> secondList){
    ArrayList<String> commons = new ArrayList<>();

    for (String s2 : secondList) {
        for (String s1 : firstList) {
           if(s2.contains(s1)){
               commons.add(s2);
           }
        }
    }

    firstList.removeAll(commons);
    secondList.removeAll(commons);
    return !(firstList.size() > 0 || secondList.size() > 0) ;
}