Java Convert ArrayList to Array

In this Java core tutorial we learn how to convert an java.util.ArrayList object to an array in Java programming language.

Table of contents

Convert ArrayList to Array of Objects in Java
Convert ArrayList to Array of Specified Type in Java

Convert ArrayList to Array of Objects in Java

In Java, with a given ArrayList object we can use the List.toArray() method to convert it to an Object[] array as the following example Java code.

ConvertArrayListToArrayExample1.java

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

public class ConvertArrayListToArrayExample1 {
    public static void main(String... args) {
        List<String> arrayList = new ArrayList<>();

        arrayList.add("Java");
        arrayList.add("Kotlin");
        arrayList.add("Groovy");

        Object[] array = arrayList.toArray();
        for (Object item : array) {
            System.out.println(item);
        }
    }
}

The output as below.

Java
Kotlin
Groovy

Convert ArrayList to Array of Specified Type in Java

We also can convert an ArrayList to array at specified data type using the List.toArray(T[] a) method as the following example Java code.

ConvertArrayListToArrayExample2.java

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

public class ConvertArrayListToArrayExample2 {
    public static void main(String... args) {
        List<String> arrayList = new ArrayList<>();

        arrayList.add("Java");
        arrayList.add("Kotlin");
        arrayList.add("Groovy");

        String[] array = new String[arrayList.size()];
        arrayList.toArray(array);
        for (String item : array) {
            System.out.println(item);
        }
    }
}