Convert a String into an array List Java

Question

I have a String like this:

["http://www.ebuy.al/Images/dsc/17470_500_400.jpg", "http://www.ebuy.al/Images/dsc/17471_500_400.jpg"]

How can I convert it into an ArrayList of String s?

Answer 1

Use Arrays#asList

String[] stringArray = { "http://www.ebuy.al/Images/dsc/17470_500_400.jpg", "http://www.ebuy.al/Images/dsc/17471_500_400.jpg"}
List<String> stringList = Arrays.asList(stringArray);

In case your string contains braces [] and double quotes "" , then you should parse the string manually first.

String yourString = "[\"http://www.ebuy.al/Images/dsc/17470_500_400.jpg\", \"http://www.ebuy.al/Images/dsc/17471_500_400.jpg\"]";
String[] stringArray = yourString
    .substring(1, yourString.length() - 2)
    .replace('"', '\0')
    .split(",\\s+");
List<String> stringList = Arrays.asList(stringArray);

Try the above if and only if you will always receive your String in this format. Otherwise, use a proper JSON parser library like Jackson .

Answer 2

Method 1: Iterate through the array and put each element to arrayList on every iteration.

Method 2: Use asList() method

Example1: Using asList() method

String[] urStringArray = { "http://www.ebuy.al/Images/dsc/17470_500_400.jpg", "http://www.ebuy.al/Images/dsc/17471_500_400.jpg"}
List<String> newList = Arrays.asList(urStringArray);

Example2 Using simple iteration

List<String> newList = new ArrayList<String>();
for(String aString:urStringArray){
newList.add(aString);
}

Answer 3

You can use simple CSV parser if you remove the first and last brackets ('[',']')

Something like this:

List<String> items = Arrays.asList(str.split("\\s*,\\s*"));

Answer 4

This would be more appropriate

String jsonArr = "[\"http://www.ebuy.al/Images/dsc/17470_500_400.jpg\", 
                   \"http://www.ebuy.al/Images/dsc/17471_500_400.jpg\"]";
List<String> listFromJsonArray = new ArrayList<String>();
JSONArray jsonArray = new JSONArray(jsonArr);
for(int i =0 ;i<jsonArray.length();i++){
      listFromJsonArray.add(jsonArray.get(i).toString());
}

And don't forget to add json library