[java] Remove Null Value from String array in java

How to remove null value from String array in java?

String[] firstArray = {"test1","","test2","test4",""};

I need the "firstArray" without null ( empty) values like this

String[] firstArray = {"test1","test2","test4"};

Using Google's guava library

String[] firstArray = {"test1","","test2","test4","",null};

Iterable<String> st=Iterables.filter(Arrays.asList(firstArray),new Predicate<String>() {
    @Override
    public boolean apply(String arg0) {
        if(arg0==null) //avoid null strings 
            return false;
        if(arg0.length()==0) //avoid empty strings 
            return false;
        return true; // else true
    }
});

Those are zero-length strings, not null. But if you want to remove them:

firstArray[0] refers to the first element
firstArray[1] refers to the second element

You can move the second into the first thusly:

firstArray[0]  = firstArray[1]

If you were to do this for elements [1,2], then [2,3], etc. you would eventually shift the entire contents of the array to the left, eliminating element 0. Can you see how that would apply?

Quite similar approve as already posted above. However it's easier to read.

/**
 * Remove all empty spaces from array a string array
 * @param arr array
 * @return array without ""
 */
public static String[] removeAllEmpty(String[] arr) {
    if (arr == null)
        return arr;

    String[] result = new String[arr.length];
    int amountOfValidStrings = 0;

    for (int i = 0; i < arr.length; i++) {
        if (!arr[i].equals(""))
            result[amountOfValidStrings++] = arr[i];
    }

    result = Arrays.copyOf(result, amountOfValidStrings);

    return result;
}

It seems no one has mentioned about using nonNull method which also can be used with streams in Java 8 to remove null (but not empty) as:

String[] origArray = {"Apple", "", "Cat", "Dog", "", null};
String[] cleanedArray = Arrays.stream(firstArray).filter(Objects::nonNull).toArray(String[]::new);
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(origArray));
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(cleanedArray));

And the output is:

[Apple, , Cat, Dog, , null]

[Apple, , Cat, Dog, ]

If we want to incorporate empty also then we can define a utility method (in class Utils(say)):

public static boolean isEmpty(String string) {
        return (string != null && string.isEmpty());
    }

And then use it to filter the items as:

Arrays.stream(firstArray).filter(Utils::isEmpty).toArray(String[]::new);

I believe Apache common also provides a utility method StringUtils.isNotEmpty which can also be used.

This is the code that I use to remove null values from an array which does not use array lists.

String[] array = {"abc", "def", null, "g", null}; // Your array
String[] refinedArray = new String[array.length]; // A temporary placeholder array
int count = -1;
for(String s : array) {
    if(s != null) { // Skips over null values. Add "|| "".equals(s)" if you want to exclude empty strings
        refinedArray[++count] = s; // Increments count and sets a value in the refined array
    }
}

// Returns an array with the same data but refits it to a new length
array = Arrays.copyOf(refinedArray, count + 1);

A gc-friendly piece of code:

public static<X> X[] arrayOfNotNull(X[] array) {
    for (int p=0, N=array.length; p<N; ++p) {
        if (array[p] == null) {
            int m=p; for (int i=p+1; i<N; ++i) if (array[i]!=null) ++m;
            X[] res = Arrays.copyOf(array, m);
            for (int i=p+1; i<N; ++i) if (array[i]!=null) res[p++] = array[i];
            return res;
        }
    }
    return array;
}

It returns the original array if it contains no nulls. It does not modify the original array.

If you actually want to add/remove items from an array, may I suggest a List instead?

String[] firstArray = {"test1","","test2","test4",""};
ArrayList<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
for (String s : firstArray)
    if (!s.equals(""))
        list.add(s);

Then, if you really need to put that back into an array:

firstArray = list.toArray(new String[list.size()]);