We can get the element from an ArrayList in Java using the get() method from the ArrayList class.
Syntax
public Object get(int index);
We need to provide the index of an element that we want to retrieve from the list, and the method is defined as returning an object of type Object.
If you need a refresher on the concepts of objects in Java, be sure to check out our tutorial on Objects and Classes in Java.
Example
import java.util.*;
public class Test {
public static void main(String[] args) {
List<String> cities = new ArrayList<>(Arrays.asList("New York", "London", "Paris", "Chicago", "Rome"));
// retrieve the second element from the list
System.out.println(cities.get(2));
// retrieve the 4th element from the list
System.out.println(cities.get(4));
}
}
Output: Paris Rome
Lists are zero-based indexes, which means that the first element has an index of 0. The list we are using contains 5 elements, so valid indexes are from 0 to 4.
If we provide an invalid index, the IndexOutOfBoundsException error will be thrown. See the following example:
import java.util.*;
public class Test {
public static void main(String[] args) {
List<String> cities = new ArrayList<>(Arrays.asList("New York", "London", "Paris", "Chicago", "Rome"));
// retrieve the 5th element from the list
System.out.println(cities.get(5));
}
}
Output: Exception in thread “main” java.lang.IndexOutOfBoundsException: Index 5 out of bounds for length 5 at java.base/jdk.internal.util.Preconditions.outOfBounds(Preconditions.java:64) at java.base/java.util.Objects.checkIndex(Objects.java:359) at java.base/java.util.ArrayList.get(ArrayList.java:427) at com.alegrucoding.Test.main(Test.java:12)
Be sure to also check out our Exception Handling in Java tutorial to learn how to handle potential errors that may occur in your code.
That was all about how to get the element from an ArrayList in Java.
Happy coding!
