How to convert an Array to a List in Java

There are multiple ways to convert an array to a list in Java. In this article, you will learn about different ways of converting an array to a List in Java.

Convert an array to a list using a loop

Let us start with a simple example that shows how to convert a primitive array int[] to a List<Integer> by using a loop:

int[] years = {2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020};

// convert array to list
List<Integer> list = new ArrayList<>();
for (int y : years) {
    list.add(y);
}

// print list elements
for (Integer elem: list) {
    System.out.println(elem);
}

The above code will print the following on the console:

2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020

Convert an array to a list using Arrays.asList()

For string or object (non-primitive) arrays, you can use the Arrays.asList() method to easily convert an array to a list. Here is an example of a string array to list conversion:

String[] names = {"Atta", "John", "Emma", "Tom"};

// convert array to list
List<String> list = Arrays.asList(names);

// print list elements
System.out.println(list);

You should see the following output:

[Atta, John, Emma, Tom]

Convert an array to a list using Java 8 Stream

In Java 8+, you can use the Stream API to convert an array to a list, as shown below:

int[] years = {2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020};

// convert array to list
List<Integer> list = Arrays.stream(years).boxed().collect(Collectors.toList());

// print list elements
list.forEach(System.out::println);

Here is the output:

2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020

Java 8 Stream API can also be used for non-primitive arrays:

String[] names = {"Atta", "John", "Emma", "Tom"};

// convert array to list
List<String> list = Arrays.stream(names).collect(Collectors.toList());

Convert an array to a list using List.of()

If you are using Java 9 or higher, you can use the List.of() method as well for an array to a list conversion:

String[] names = {"Atta", "John", "Emma", "Tom"};

// convert array to list
List<String> list = List.of(names);

// print list elements
System.out.println(list);

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