Main Tutorials

Java – How to convert a primitive Array to List

Code snippets to convert a primitive array int[] to a List<Integer> :


	int[] number = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10};

	List<Integer> list = new ArrayList<>();
	for (int i : number) {
    	list.add(i);
	}

In Java 8, you can use the Stream APIs to do the boxing and conversion like this :


	List<Integer> list = Arrays.stream(number).boxed().collect(Collectors.toList());

1. Classic Example

Full example to convert a primitive Array to a List.

ArrayExample1.java

package com.mkyong.array;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

public class ArrayExample1 {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        int[] number = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10};

        List<Integer> list = convertIntArrayToList(number);
        System.out.println("list : " + list);

    }

    private static List<Integer> convertIntArrayToList(int[] input) {

        List<Integer> list = new ArrayList<>();
        for (int i : input) {
            list.add(i);
        }
        return list;

    }
}

Output


list : [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
Note
You can’t use the popular Arrays.asList to convert it directly, because boxing issue.


	int[] number = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10};
	// No, the return type is not what we want
	List<int[]> ints = Arrays.asList(number);

2. Java 8 Stream

Full Java 8 stream example to convert a primitive Array to a List.

ArrayExample2.java

package com.mkyong.array;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.stream.Collectors;
import java.util.stream.IntStream;

public class ArrayExample2 {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        int[] number = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10};

        // IntStream.of or Arrays.stream, same output
        //List<Integer> list = IntStream.of(number).boxed().collect(Collectors.toList());
		
        List<Integer> list = Arrays.stream(number).boxed().collect(Collectors.toList());
        System.out.println("list : " + list);

    }
}

Output


list : [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

References

  1. IntStream JavaDoc
  2. Java – Convert Array to Stream

About Author

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Founder of Mkyong.com, love Java and open source stuff. Follow him on Twitter. If you like my tutorials, consider make a donation to these charities.

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Brian L
6 years ago

I’ve learnt of lots of java 8, spring boot and hibernate basic knowledge/skills from here, tks Mkyong.

minucha
4 years ago

Can we do the vice versa using stream ? I mean from ArrayList to int[]?

anurag singh
6 years ago

Thanks for sharing this nice article about java 8 new features.
keep writing for us.