Initialization of an ArrayList in one line

Question

I wanted to create a list of options for testing purposes. At first, I did this:

ArrayList places = new ArrayList();
places.add(\         


        

Answer 1

Collections.singletonList(messageBody)

If you'd need to have a list of one item!

Collections is from java.util package.

Answer 2

It would be simpler if you were to just declare it as a List - does it have to be an ArrayList?

List<String> places = Arrays.asList("Buenos Aires", "Córdoba", "La Plata");

Or if you have only one element:

List<String> places = Collections.singletonList("Buenos Aires");

This would mean that places is immutable (trying to change it will cause an UnsupportedOperationException exception to be thrown).

To make a mutable list that is a concrete ArrayList you can create an ArrayList from the immutable list:

ArrayList<String> places = new ArrayList<>(Arrays.asList("Buenos Aires", "Córdoba", "La Plata"));

Answer 3

Java 9 has the following method to create an immutable list:

List<String> places = List.of("Buenos Aires", "Córdoba", "La Plata");

which is easily adapted to create a mutable list, if required:

List<String> places = new ArrayList<>(List.of("Buenos Aires", "Córdoba", "La Plata"));

Similar methods are available for Set and Map.

Answer 4

For me Arrays.asList() is the best and convenient one. I always like to initialize that way. If you are a beginner into Java Collections then I would like you to refer ArrayList initialization

Answer 5

You could create a factory method:

public static ArrayList<String> createArrayList(String ... elements) {
  ArrayList<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
  for (String element : elements) {
    list.add(element);
  }
  return list;
}

....

ArrayList<String> places = createArrayList(
  "São Paulo", "Rio de Janeiro", "Brasília");

But it's not much better than your first refactoring.

For greater flexibility, it can be generic:

public static <T> ArrayList<T> createArrayList(T ... elements) {
  ArrayList<T> list = new ArrayList<T>();
  for (T element : elements) {
    list.add(element);
  }
  return list;
}

Answer 6

About the most compact way to do this is:

Double array[] = { 1.0, 2.0, 3.0};
List<Double> list = Arrays.asList(array);