Convert ArrayList to Array in Java

In this post, you will learn how to convert ArrayList to array in Java using two methods:

• With a for loop
• Using toArray() method

Convert ArrayList to Array in Java with a for loop

In this example, we create an empty array, then iterate over the list and add each element to the array.

class Test {

  public static void main(String[] args) {

    List<String> list = new ArrayList<>();
    list.add("item1");
    list.add("item2");
    list.add("item3");
    list.add("item4");

    // create an empty array with length == size of the list
    String[] array = new String[list.size()];

    // iterate over a list and add each element to the array
    for (int i = 0; i < list.size(); i++) {
      array[i] = list.get(i);
    }

    // print array elements
    System.out.println(Arrays.toString(array));
  }
}

Convert list to array using toArray() method

Instead of copying each element of the list manually to the array, like in the above example, we can use the toArray() method that converts the list to an array.

Example

class Test {

  public static void main(String[] args) {

    List<String> list = new ArrayList<>();
    list.add("item1");
    list.add("item2");
    list.add("item3");
    list.add("item4");

    // convert ArrayList to array
    String[] array = list.toArray(new String[list.size()]);

    // print array elements
    System.out.println(Arrays.toString(array));
  }
}