List to String using toString() in java - java

I'm having ArrayList Contains of String. I would like to check whether the character is present in the arraylist. I'm using the following code.
if(list.toString.contains(char))
{
// enter code here
}
Can i use this toString() method. What is the drawback?

It would be a really bad idea to use List.toString() and search that. Your code should probably look something like this :
Iterator it = list.getIterator();
char searchChar = 'S';
while (it.hasNext())
{
String s = (String) it.next();
if ( s.contains(searchChar) )
{
//Found the char!
}
}

No you cannot go ahead with arraylist.toString(), as it will not provide string representation of contents in String.
Better approach is to iterate over list and check, as below.
for(String detail:listString){
if(detail.contains('X')) //replace 'X' with your character
{
// do somethng
}
}

Try this,
Arrays.toString(inputList.toArray()).contains(searchValue);

list.toString() gives you a string representation of a list and thus it contains more characters then just the concatenated list elements
[stringElement1, stringElement2, ... ]
Therefore your approach will not work if the character you are looking for is , , , [ or ].
And keep in mind that this string representation is implementation specific. It might not work for other list implementations than ArrayList
I would recommend to write a method linke this:
private boolean listElementContains(List<String> list, String subString){
for(String element : list){
if(element.contains(subString)){
return true;
}
}
return false;
}

You can call toString() on any Java Object. List is an Object which contains (you guessed it) a list of other Objects. Therefore, you can also call toString() on each Object contained within the List. You should read about inheritance in Java.
In your particular case, you have a List of Strings. What you actually want to do is check each String in the List to see if the String contains a particular character. Topics you may want to read about include iteration, for loops, and for each loops.

If I understand this correctly, your code would look like this:
List<String> strings = new ArrayList<>();
//add strings to list
for (String string : strings) {
//Look for some character c
if (string.indexOf(c) >= 0) {
return true;
}
}
return false;
On the matter of list.toString, that simply returns a representation of the object as a string; it has nothing to do with the contents. Think of it like a label on a box of stuff that says "Junk." The box is labeled Junk, but you have no idea what's in it.
What's nearly certain is that toString will return a nonsense label for the object in memory. So to get at what's inside, you need to loop through the contents as shown above.

if(list.toString.contains(char))
String's contains() method won't take char as param, instead check with indexOf
Your code works, with little modifications.
A small example here:
List<String> list= new ArrayList<>();
list.add("test");
list.add("test2");
if (list.toString().indexOf('t') > -1) // True
{
System.out.println("yes there");
}
Note:
As a workaround, Make an char array and add your char in to that array and then use contains method.

Related

How to remove a object inside an array list

I have searched a lot for this, and checked the posts that is provided as possible answers, and none seems to give me an answer.
I have this arraylist in which i store online users.
I can read from the user list and add to it.
Problem is, I cant seem to find out how I remove it.
I have tried
online.remove("MyUsername");
My class and initialiser is like this:
ArrayList<userOnline> online = new ArrayList<userOnline>();
class userOnline {
String userName;
String data1;
String data2;
String data3;
}
I thought it would find the object row with username and remove the row, or at least the username, but it removed nothing and does not give me any errors.
What can I do to make it work? Or what can I use as an alternative if this is not possible? A pointer to a doc explaining would be more than enough help!
Thanks!
Seemed like the solution was this, but this is not considered good practice
for (int i=0; i <online.size(); i++) {
if(online.get(i).userName.equals("username")) {
online.remove(i);
}
}
After a discussion and a lot of feedback seems like the only right way for java to handle this search and remove is,
Iterator<userOnline> it = online.iterator();
while (it.hasNext()) {
userOnline user = it.next();
if (currentLogin.equals(user.userName)) {
it.remove();
}
}
I couldn't find a dupe or a suitable doc, so here it is:
Use an Iterator:
for (Iterator<userOnline> iterator = online.iterator(); iterator.hasNext();) {
if (iterator.next().getName().equals("MyUsername")) {
iterator.remove();
}
}
Basically, you can't compare apples and pears (String and userOnline) directly. Yes you could override equals, but it should really match all the properties, not just one.
A simple solution would be to search the List, comparing each objects userName property with the value you want an either return the index or object reference, which you could use to remove it.
Alternatively, you could use an Iterator and remove it as you search...
ArrayList<userOnline> online = new ArrayList<>();
userOnline newUser = new userOnline();
newUser.userName = "MyUsername";
online.add(newUser);
System.out.println(online.size());
Iterator<userOnline> it = online.iterator();
while (it.hasNext()) {
userOnline user = it.next();
if ("MyUsername".equals(user.userName)) {
it.remove();
}
}
System.out.println(online.size());
There's probably also a really cool "streams" based solution, but small steps ;)
You could create a function that takes in your list of users and finds the first occurence of a given name and removes it when it finds a user with the name given like so
public Array<userOnline> removeUserByName(Array<userOnline> users, String nameToFind)
{
for(int i = 0; i < users.size(); i++)
{
if(users.get(i).userName.equals(nameToFind))
{
users.remove(i);
return users;
}
}
return users;
}
You could also make this function part of the class you store your list of userOnline objects then you wouldn't have to pass the array into the function.
You must search through the userOnline objects contained within your ArrayList and either find the index of the match or a reference to the match. Once you have either of these, you can remove the object from the list using one of the overloaded remove() methods. Remember that by default, the equals method compares references.
The search can be as follows:
private userOnline findUserOnlineWithUsername(String username) {
Iterator<userOnline> it = online.iterator();
onlineUser olu = null;
while(it.hasNext()) {
olu = it.next();
if (olu.userName.equals(username)) { return olu;}
}
return null;
}
Iterate over the list to find the index of the element you are interested in:
int idx = -1;
for (int i = 0; i < online.size(); i++) {
if(online.get(i).userName.equals("MyUsername"))
{
idx = i;
}
}
Use this index to remove the relevant element:
if(idx != -1) {
online.remove(online[idx]);
}
This would only remove the first occurrence. You could put this code into a function and call repeatedly to find all occurrences.
Your code is asking to remove a String from a List of UserOnlines, you need to use the object reference for the remove(Object o) method, or you need to find out the index of the object you wish to remove and use the remove(int index) method. How are you adding your objects to the list? If you're using the list itself as a reference you'll need to create your own method to define what object "MyUserName" is supposed to be.

Null pointer exception while checking if a string is present in a string array in android?

I have an application which requires to check if a String is present in an array of String type, before adding it so as to avoid duplication. To do this, I wrote the following function:
public boolean arrayHas(String[] arr, String str)
{
for(int i=0;i<arr.length;i++)
{
if(arr[i].equals(str))
return true;
}
return false;
}
To invoke this function, I'm using:
if(!arrayHas(contacts,str))
{
contacts[i] = str;
i++;
}
contacts and str are declared as follows
public static String contacts[] = new String[]{};
String str = "";
Bundle bun = getIntent().getExtras();
str = bun.getString("key");
Elements are added to 'contacts' only through the main code, it is empty at the beginning. I tried adding a toast to display the value of 'str' received through the intent and it works fine. But I'm getting a NullPointerException in the 'if' statement in the arrayHas function. Could someone help me out?
Seems that you haven't initialized the array with elements. So all of them are NULL.
In you arrayHas function check if the element you are comparing with is a null or not.
if(arr[i] != null && arr[i].equals(str) )
{
// do your operation
}
Also before calling arrayHas function in
if(arrayHas(contacts,str)) { }
put a check if contacts is null or not.
Two issues:
First: add a null check in if as:
if(arr[i] != null && arr[i].equals(str))
because that position may not have assigned with a valid string yet e.g. in the very beginning, no assignment is made and arr[0] is null so comparison will result into NullPointerException.
Second: I think you want to check the not ie. ! condition in this check:
if(!arrayHas(contacts,str))
{
contacts[i] = str;
i++;
}
If you want to avoid duplication, use a java.util.Set<String>, it will take care of it for you. You can always uso toArray() if you really need an array later on.
If you care about the order of your elements, you can also use a java.util.List, and check the presence of the element with list.contains(str)
Use this instead :
String contacts[] = new String[10];
String str = "somethiung";
if(Arrays.asList(contacts).contains(str))
{
contacts[i] = str;
i++;
}
Arrays.asList(.).contains(.) gives you a much better way to test if a string is present in an array.
By the way make sure that contacts and str are properly initialized.
Just a suggestion to code style. Try to defensive programming., ie. you are checking whether the string str is present in arr in that case always do the check in reverse ie., str.equals(arr[i]), so that unnecessary NPEs wont be raised.
In this case an NPE could be raised at 2 points, if arr is null .length and .equals will throw NPE's. From this its evident that, either arr is null , or arr[i] is null.
Find the method where arr is filled with data, there something is going wrong.
thanks
You must not have initialized your contacts[] but it might be the case like str[0]=null but str[1]="something";
in that case change
arr[i].equals(str) to `str.equals(arr[i])` as str is less likely to be null
- I think you are trying to find whether a String is a present in the Array of Not.
- First use Collections cause that will be much more flexible in comparision to Array.
- Use Collections.contains() method to find the String if present of not.
For example if you are using List:
List<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
list.contains("string_to_be_found");

Java contains doesn't work as expected because "someString" != "someString"

I want check whether a String value val is contained within a List of Strings lets call it stringList.
I am doing this
if(stringList.contains(val)){
System.out.println("The value is in there");
}
else{
System.out.println("There's no such value here");
}
But it always seems to be that the value is not included. Is this because two String values that have the same characters are not actually equal? For a "home-made" class I could implement hashCode() and equals() and fix this, what can I do for String data?
EDIT:
The way I am getting val is outlined here:
List<String> stringList = new ArrayList<String>();
stringList.add("PDT");
stringList.add("LDT");
stringList.add("ELNE");
String myFile = "/folder/myFile";
InputStream input = new FileInputStream(myFile);
CSVReader reader = new CSVReader(new InputStreamReader(input), ',','"', 1);
String[] nextLine;
try {
while ((nextLine = reader.readNext()) != null) {
if (nextLine != null) {
if (nextLine[6] != null){
String val = nextLine[6];
if(stringList.contains(val)){
System.out.println("Success");
}
}
}
}
ArrayList.contains() uses Object.equals() to check for equality (hashCode() is not involved in List). This works well for strings. Probably, your string really isn't contained in the list...
You've probably overlooked some whitespace or upper/lower-case or encoding difference...
More code please!
This works:
import java.util.*;
public class Contains {
public static void main(String[] args) {
List<String> stringList = new ArrayList<String>();
stringList.add("someString");
String val = new String("someString");
if (stringList.contains(val)) {
System.out.println("The value is in there");
} else {
System.out.println("There's no such value here");
}
}
}
That doesn’t sound right: contains uses equals rather than ==, so if the string is in the list, it should be found. This can be verified in the indexOf method of the superclass AbstractList used by ArrayList.
Following your edit, make sure you trim strings before doing contains, as otherwise they may contain the newline character(s).
Try the following, first make the check more concrete by iterating the list and checking each element separately. Than, when you hit the elements that you are expecting to be equal, This is what you are supposed to be looking at. Check to see if they are really equal. Maybe there is a case difference? (or some other elusive but plain difference like white space?)
Try to override equals(){}, so that you can specify which property needs to compare equality .... :P

replace null or empty data in string builder with some message

I have a string builder and it contains some data.I want to ensure whenever there is a null or empty("") data in it, i want to replace it with some message e.g not available. This is a huge data and i cannot go and replace each and every String.
Following is a snippet of code :
Stringbuilder sb = new Stringbuilder();
String a = "10";
String b = 13;
sb.append("entity.id=").append(a).append("entity.value=").append(b);
sb.toString;
So whenever entity.id or entity."ANYTHING" equals "null" or is empty, it should be replaced with a message like entity.id= not available
Without knowing your exact requirements, this may not be perfect, but is one option:
public void myCustomAppend(Appendable a, CharSequence cs){
if(cs == null || cs.length() == 0){
a.append("(not available)");
}else{
a.append(cs);
}
}
myCustomAppend(sb, "entity.id=");
myCustomAppend(sb, a);
myCustomAppend(sb, "entity.value=");
myCustomAppend(sb, b);
Some improvements to this could include creating it as a custom object with it's own state - preventing the need to keep passing-in the same reference to the StringBuilder, as well as allowing for successive calls to be chained (as you had them in the original question).
Create a function, for example...
public String checkString(String str) {
if(str == null || str.isEmpty())
return "N/A";
return str;
}
Call it on a String you want to append.
sb.append("entity.id=").append(checkString(a)).append("entity.value=").append(checkString(b));
Consider using Guava's Joiner class.
List<String> values = newArrayList("value1", "value2", a, b, c);
String result = Joinger.on(" ").useForNull("null").join(values);
You can also use "omitNull" instead of "useForNull"
Seeing what you are doing, you might also want to look at MoreObjects.ToStringHelper
Guava docs
check the strings if they are empty, before you append it. If the string is empty you can append a your message instead of the content of the data strings. ;)

String array[0] don't pass at the if

Hello everybody I have a question:
I have a array
String[] parte
and I need of the first value of the array so I did:
String verifica = parte[0] // It can be N (for Name) L (for List) and E (for Error)
Why if I run this code and I know that "verifica" is L
if (verifica == "L") { //If code
} else { //Else code
}
it returned to me always the Else code
ThankYou sooooo much
-Matteo
Comparing Strings in Java must be done with String.equals():
if (verifica.equals("L")) { //If code
What you were trying to do was comparing two distinct objects, and not their contents.
You need to use:
if (verifica.equals("L")) { //If code
} else { //Else code
}
instead of '=='. '==' in Java checks for object identity in memory, where the functionality you're needing here is to compare String values. Took me experiencing this error to realize the difference (I come from a C# background) in Java as well.
Use the equals operator for strings:
if (verifica.equals("L"))
You want if (verifica.equals("L")) or if (verifica.compareTo("L") == 0). == is not a reliable operator for comparing strings.

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