[java] Simple way to compare 2 ArrayLists

I have 2 arraylists of string object.

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

I have some logic where i need to process the source list and will end up with the destination list. The destination list will have some additional elements added to the source list or removed from source list.

My expected output is 2 ArrayList of string where the first list should have all the strings removed from the source and second list should have all the strings newly added to the source.

Any simpler method to achieve this?

The answer is given in @dku-rajkumar post.

ArrayList commonList = CollectionUtils.retainAll(list1,list2);

The simplest way is to iterate through source and destination lists one by one like this:

List<String> newAddedElementsList = new ArrayList<String>();
List<String> removedElementsList = new ArrayList<String>();
for(String ele : sourceList){
    if(destinationList.contains(ele)){
        continue;
    }else{
        removedElementsList.add(ele);
    }
}
for(String ele : destinationList){
    if(sourceList.contains(ele)){
        continue;
    }else{
        newAddedElementsList.add(ele);
    }
}

Though it might not be very efficient if your source and destination lists have many elements but surely its simpler.

As far as I understand it correctly, I think it's easiest to work with 4 lists: - Your sourceList - Your destinationList - A removedItemsList - A newlyAddedItemsList

private int compareLists(List<String> list1, List<String> list2){
    Collections.sort(list1);
    Collections.sort(list2);

    int maxIteration = 0;
    if(list1.size() == list2.size() || list1.size() < list2.size()){
        maxIteration = list1.size();
    } else {
        maxIteration = list2.size();
    }

    for (int index = 0; index < maxIteration; index++) {
        int result = list1.get(index).compareTo(list2.get(index));
        if (result == 0) {
            continue;
        } else {
            return result;
        }
    }
    return list1.size() - list2.size();
}

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));
    }
}

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);

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) ;
}

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.

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);
}