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Converting 'ArrayList<String> to 'String[]' in Java

Submitted by: @import:stackoverflow-api·Mar 10, 2026·

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javastringarraylistconverting

Problem

How might I convert an ArrayList object to a String[] array in Java?

Solution

List list = ..;
String[] array = list.toArray(new String[0]);

For example:

List list = new ArrayList();
//add some stuff
list.add("android");
list.add("apple");
String[] stringArray = list.toArray(new String[0]);

The toArray() method without passing any argument returns Object[]. So you have to pass an array as an argument, which will be filled with the data from the list, and returned. You can pass an empty array as well, but you can also pass an array with the desired size.

Important update: Originally the code above used new String[list.size()]. However, this blogpost reveals that due to JVM optimizations, using new String[0] is better now.

Code Snippets

List<String> list = ..;
String[] array = list.toArray(new String[0]);

List<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
//add some stuff
list.add("android");
list.add("apple");
String[] stringArray = list.toArray(new String[0]);

Context

Stack Overflow Q#4042434, score: 2108

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