[java] How to convert an Array to a Set in Java

I would like to convert an array to a Set in Java. There are some obvious ways of doing this (i.e. with a loop) but I would like something a bit neater, something like:

java.util.Arrays.asList(Object[] a);

Any ideas?

Use CollectionUtils or ArrayUtils from stanford-postagger-3.0.jar

import static edu.stanford.nlp.util.ArrayUtils.asSet;
or 
import static edu.stanford.nlp.util.CollectionUtils.asSet;

  ...
String [] array = {"1", "q"};
Set<String> trackIds = asSet(array);

In Eclipse Collections, the following will work:

Set<Integer> set1 = Sets.mutable.of(1, 2, 3, 4, 5);
Set<Integer> set2 = Sets.mutable.of(new Integer[]{1, 2, 3, 4, 5});
MutableSet<Integer> mutableSet = Sets.mutable.of(1, 2, 3, 4, 5);
ImmutableSet<Integer> immutableSet = Sets.immutable.of(1, 2, 3, 4, 5);

Set<Integer> unmodifiableSet = Sets.mutable.of(1, 2, 3, 4, 5).asUnmodifiable();
Set<Integer> synchronizedSet = Sets.mutable.of(1, 2, 3, 4, 5).asSynchronized();
ImmutableSet<Integer> immutableSet = Sets.mutable.of(1, 2, 3, 4, 5).toImmutable();

Note: I am a committer for Eclipse Collections

Set<T> b = new HashSet<>(Arrays.asList(requiredArray));

Quickly : you can do :

// Fixed-size list
List list = Arrays.asList(array);

// Growable list
list = new LinkedList(Arrays.asList(array));

// Duplicate elements are discarded
Set set = new HashSet(Arrays.asList(array));

and to reverse

// Create an array containing the elements in a list
Object[] objectArray = list.toArray();
MyClass[] array = (MyClass[])list.toArray(new MyClass[list.size()]);

// Create an array containing the elements in a set
objectArray = set.toArray();
array = (MyClass[])set.toArray(new MyClass[set.size()]);

Java 8

We have the option of using Stream as well. We can get stream in various ways:

Set<String> set = Stream.of("A", "B", "C", "D").collect(Collectors.toCollection(HashSet::new));
System.out.println(set);

String[] stringArray = {"A", "B", "C", "D"};
Set<String> strSet1 = Arrays.stream(stringArray).collect(Collectors.toSet());
System.out.println(strSet1);

// if you need HashSet then use below option.
Set<String> strSet2 = Arrays.stream(stringArray).collect(Collectors.toCollection(HashSet::new));
System.out.println(strSet2);

The source code of Collectors.toSet() shows that elements are added one by one to a HashSet but specification does not guarantee it will be a HashSet.

"There are no guarantees on the type, mutability, serializability, or thread-safety of the Set returned."

So it is better to use the later option. The output is: [A, B, C, D] [A, B, C, D] [A, B, C, D]

Immutable Set (Java 9)

Java 9 introduced Set.of static factory method which returns immutable set for the provided elements or the array.

@SafeVarargs
static <E> Set<E> of?(E... elements)

Check Immutable Set Static Factory Methods for details.

Immutable Set (Java 10)

We can also get an immutable set in two ways:

1. Set.copyOf(Arrays.asList(array))
2. Arrays.stream(array).collect(Collectors.toUnmodifiableList());

The method Collectors.toUnmodifiableList() internally makes use of Set.of introduced in Java 9. Also check this answer of mine for more.

After you do Arrays.asList(array) you can execute Set set = new HashSet(list);

Here is a sample method, you can write:

public <T> Set<T> GetSetFromArray(T[] array) {
    return new HashSet<T>(Arrays.asList(array));
}

new HashSet<Object>(Arrays.asList(Object[] a));

But I think this would be more efficient:

final Set s = new HashSet<Object>();    
for (Object o : a) { s.add(o); }         

Set<T> mySet = new HashSet<T>();
Collections.addAll(mySet, myArray);

That's Collections.addAll(java.util.Collection, T...) from JDK 6.

Additionally: what if our array is full of primitives?

For JDK < 8, I would just write the obvious for loop to do the wrap and add-to-set in one pass.

For JDK >= 8, an attractive option is something like:

Arrays.stream(intArray).boxed().collect(Collectors.toSet());

Varargs will work too!

Stream.of(T... values).collect(Collectors.toSet());

In Java 10:

String[] strs = {"A", "B"};
Set<String> set = Set.copyOf(Arrays.asList(strs));

Set.copyOf returns an unmodifiable Set containing the elements of the given Collection.

 The given Collection must not be null, and it must not contain any null elements.

Java 8:

String[] strArray = {"eins", "zwei", "drei", "vier"};

Set<String> strSet = Arrays.stream(strArray).collect(Collectors.toSet());
System.out.println(strSet);
// [eins, vier, zwei, drei]

Sometime using some standard libraries helps a lot. Try to look at the Apache Commons Collections. In this case your problems is simply transformed to something like this

String[] keys = {"blah", "blahblah"}
Set<String> myEmptySet = new HashSet<String>();
CollectionUtils.addAll(pythonKeywordSet, keys);

And here is the CollectionsUtils javadoc

With Guava you can do:

T[] array = ...
Set<T> set = Sets.newHashSet(array);

For anyone solving for Android:

Kotlin Collections Solution

The asterisk * is the spread operator. It applies all elements in a collection individually, each passed in order to a vararg method parameter. It is equivalent to:

val myArray = arrayOf("data", "foo")
val mySet = setOf(*myArray)

// Equivalent to
val mySet = setOf("data", "foo")

// Multiple spreads ["data", "foo", "bar", "data", "foo"]
val mySet = setOf(*myArray, "bar", *myArray)

Passing no parameters setOf() results in an empty set.

In addition to setOf, you can also use any of these for a specific hash type:

hashSetOf()
linkedSetOf()
mutableSetOf()
sortableSetOf()

This is how to define the collection item type explicitly.

setOf<String>()
hashSetOf<MyClass>()

I've written the below from the advice above - steal it... it's nice!

/**
 * Handy conversion to set
 */
public class SetUtil {
    /**
     * Convert some items to a set
     * @param items items
     * @param <T> works on any type
     * @return a hash set of the input items
     */
    public static <T> Set<T> asSet(T ... items) {
        return Stream.of(items).collect(Collectors.toSet());
    }
}

private Map<Integer, Set<Integer>> nobreaks = new HashMap();
nobreaks.put(1, new HashSet(Arrays.asList(new int[]{2, 4, 5})));
System.out.println("expected size is 3: " +nobreaks.get(1).size());

the output is

expected size is 3: 1

change it to

nobreaks.put(1, new HashSet(Arrays.asList( 2, 4, 5 )));

the output is

expected size is 3: 3

There has been a lot of great answers already, but most of them won't work with array of primitives (like int[], long[], char[], byte[], etc.)

In Java 8 and above, you can box the array with:

Integer[] boxedArr = Arrays.stream(arr).boxed().toArray(Integer[]::new);

Then convert to set using stream:

Stream.of(boxedArr).collect(Collectors.toSet());