CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaarraysprintingtostring
Alex Spurling
Alex Spurling

Reputation: 55914

What's the simplest way to print a Java array?

In Java, arrays don't override toString(), so if you try to print one directly, you get the className + '@' + the hex of the hashCode of the array, as defined by Object.toString():

int[] intArray = new int[] {1, 2, 3, 4, 5};
System.out.println(intArray); // Prints something like '[I@3343c8b3'

But usually, we'd actually want something more like [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. What's the simplest way of doing that? Here are some example inputs and outputs:

// Array of primitives:
int[] intArray = new int[] {1, 2, 3, 4, 5};
// Output: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

// Array of object references:
String[] strArray = new String[] {"John", "Mary", "Bob"};
// Output: [John, Mary, Bob]

Upvotes: 2446

Views: 3340755

Answers (30)

Mahozad
Mahozad

Reputation: 24682

For Android developers ending up here, this is for Kotlin:

println(myArray.joinToString())

OR

println(myArray.joinToString(separator = "|"))

Upvotes: -3

Esko
Esko

Reputation: 29375

Since Java 5 you can use Arrays.toString(arr) or Arrays.deepToString(arr) for arrays within arrays. Note that the Object[] version calls .toString() on each object in the array. The output is even decorated in the exact way you're asking.

Examples:

  • Simple Array:

    String[] array = new String[] {"John", "Mary", "Bob"};
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(array));

    Output:

    [John, Mary, Bob]

  • Nested Array:

    String[][] deepArray = new String[][] {{"John", "Mary"}, {"Alice", "Bob"}};
// Gives undesired output:
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(deepArray));
// Gives the desired output:
System.out.println(Arrays.deepToString(deepArray));

    Output:

    [[Ljava.lang.String;@106d69c, [Ljava.lang.String;@52e922]
[[John, Mary], [Alice, Bob]]

  • double Array:

    double[] doubleArray = { 7.0, 9.0, 5.0, 1.0, 3.0 };
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(doubleArray));

    Output:

    [7.0, 9.0, 5.0, 1.0, 3.0 ]

  • int Array:

    int[] intArray = { 7, 9, 5, 1, 3 };
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(intArray));

    Output:

    [7, 9, 5, 1, 3 ]

Upvotes: 3252

Nikhil S Marathe
Nikhil S Marathe

Reputation: 781

  • It is very simple way to print array without using any loop in JAVA.

    -> For, Single or simple array:

     int[] array = new int[]{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6};
 System.out.println(Arrays.toString(array));

    The Output :

          [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

    -> So, this 2D array can't be printed with Arrays.toString()

     int[][] array = new int[][]{{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}, {8, 9, 10, 11, 12,13,14}};
 System.out.println(Arrays.deepToString(array));

    The Output:

       [[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7], [8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14]]

Upvotes: 7

Shinu Mathew
Shinu Mathew

Reputation: 47

Use the Arrays class. It has multiple utility methods and its toString() is overriden to display array elements in a human readable way. Arrays.toString(arr)

Upvotes: 0

YoYo
YoYo

Reputation: 9415

Arrays.toString

As a direct answer, the solution provided by several, including @Esko, using the Arrays.toString and Arrays.deepToString methods, is simply the best.

Java 8 - Stream.collect(joining()), Stream.forEach

Below I try to list some of the other methods suggested, attempting to improve a little, with the most notable addition being the use of the Stream.collect operator, using a joining Collector, to mimic what the String.join is doing.

int[] ints = new int[] {1, 2, 3, 4, 5};
System.out.println(IntStream.of(ints).mapToObj(Integer::toString).collect(Collectors.joining(", ")));
System.out.println(IntStream.of(ints).boxed().map(Object::toString).collect(Collectors.joining(", ")));
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(ints));

String[] strs = new String[] {"John", "Mary", "Bob"};
System.out.println(Stream.of(strs).collect(Collectors.joining(", ")));
System.out.println(String.join(", ", strs));
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(strs));

DayOfWeek [] days = { FRIDAY, MONDAY, TUESDAY };
System.out.println(Stream.of(days).map(Object::toString).collect(Collectors.joining(", ")));
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(days));

// These options are not the same as each item is printed on a new line:
IntStream.of(ints).forEach(System.out::println);
Stream.of(strs).forEach(System.out::println);
Stream.of(days).forEach(System.out::println);

Upvotes: 57

jkwli
jkwli

Reputation: 51

By using the java.util.Arrays:

String mRole = "M_XXX_ABC";        
System.out.println(Arrays.asList(mRole.split("_")).toString());

output: [M, XXX, ABC]

Upvotes: 0

Anis KCHAOU
Anis KCHAOU

Reputation: 1104

If you are using Java 11

import java.util.Arrays;
public class HelloWorld{

     public static void main(String []args){
        String[] array = { "John", "Mahta", "Sara" };
       System.out.println(Arrays.toString(array).replace(",", "").replace("[", "").replace("]", ""));
     }
}

Output :

John Mahta Sara

Upvotes: 2

Chiara Tumminelli
Chiara Tumminelli

Reputation: 362

Here a possible printing function:

  public static void printArray (int [] array){
        System.out.print("{ ");
        for (int i = 0; i < array.length; i++){
            System.out.print("[" + array[i] + "] ");
        }
        System.out.print("}");
    }

For example, if main is like this

public static void main (String [] args){
    int [] array = {1, 2, 3, 4};
    printArray(array);
}

the output will be { [1] [2] [3] [4] }

Upvotes: 3

Limbic System
Limbic System

Reputation: 6940

Always check the standard libraries first. 

import java.util.Arrays;

Then try:

System.out.println(Arrays.toString(array));

or if your array contains other arrays as elements:

System.out.println(Arrays.deepToString(array));

Upvotes: 441

Chen Jin
Chen Jin

Reputation: 37

toString is a way to convert an array to string.

Also, you can use:

for (int i = 0; i < myArray.length; i++){
System.out.println(myArray[i] + " ");
}

This for loop will enable you to print each value of your array in order.

Upvotes: -1

Pradip Karki
Pradip Karki

Reputation: 702

If using Commons.Lang library, we could do:

ArrayUtils.toString(array)

int[] intArray = new int[] {1, 2, 3, 4, 5};
String[] strArray = new String[] {"John", "Mary", "Bob"};
ArrayUtils.toString(intArray);
ArrayUtils.toString(strArray);

Output:

{1,2,3,4,5}
{John,Mary,Bob}

Upvotes: 1

duyuanchao
duyuanchao

Reputation: 4313

if you are running jdk 8. 

public static void print(int[] array) {
    StringJoiner joiner = new StringJoiner(",", "[", "]");
    Arrays.stream(array).forEach(element -> joiner.add(element + ""));
    System.out.println(joiner.toString());
}


int[] array = new int[]{7, 3, 5, 1, 3};
print(array);

output:

[7,3,5,1,3]

Upvotes: 2

akhil_mittal
akhil_mittal

Reputation: 24167

Prior to Java 8

We could have used Arrays.toString(array) to print one dimensional array and Arrays.deepToString(array) for multi-dimensional arrays.

Java 8

Now we have got the option of Stream and lambda to print the array.

Printing One dimensional Array:

public static void main(String[] args) {
    int[] intArray = new int[] {1, 2, 3, 4, 5};
    String[] strArray = new String[] {"John", "Mary", "Bob"};

    //Prior to Java 8
    System.out.println(Arrays.toString(intArray));
    System.out.println(Arrays.toString(strArray));

    // In Java 8 we have lambda expressions
    Arrays.stream(intArray).forEach(System.out::println);
    Arrays.stream(strArray).forEach(System.out::println);
}

The output is:

[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
[John, Mary, Bob]
1
2
3
4
5
John
Mary
Bob

Printing Multi-dimensional Array Just in case we want to print multi-dimensional array we can use Arrays.deepToString(array) as:

public static void main(String[] args) {
    int[][] int2DArray = new int[][] { {11, 12}, { 21, 22}, {31, 32, 33} };
    String[][] str2DArray = new String[][]{ {"John", "Bravo"} , {"Mary", "Lee"}, {"Bob", "Johnson"} };

    //Prior to Java 8
    System.out.println(Arrays.deepToString(int2DArray));
    System.out.println(Arrays.deepToString(str2DArray));

    // In Java 8 we have lambda expressions
    Arrays.stream(int2DArray).flatMapToInt(x -> Arrays.stream(x)).forEach(System.out::println);
    Arrays.stream(str2DArray).flatMap(x -> Arrays.stream(x)).forEach(System.out::println);
}

Now the point to observe is that the method Arrays.stream(T[]), which in case of int[] returns us Stream<int[]> and then method flatMapToInt() maps each element of stream with the contents of a mapped stream produced by applying the provided mapping function to each element.

The output is:

[[11, 12], [21, 22], [31, 32, 33]]
[[John, Bravo], [Mary, Lee], [Bob, Johnson]]
11
12
21
22
31
32
33
John
Bravo
Mary
Lee
Bob
Johnson

Upvotes: 46

Gayan Sampath
Gayan Sampath

Reputation: 183

There are several ways to print an array elements.First of all, I'll explain that, what is an array?..Array is a simple data structure for storing data..When you define an array , Allocate set of ancillary memory blocks in RAM.Those memory blocks are taken one unit ..

Ok, I'll create an array like this,

class demo{
      public static void main(String a[]){

           int[] number={1,2,3,4,5};

           System.out.print(number);
      }
}

Now look at the output,

enter image description here

You can see an unknown string printed..As I mentioned before, the memory address whose array(number array) declared is printed.If you want to display elements in the array, you can use "for loop " , like this..

class demo{
      public static void main(String a[]){

           int[] number={1,2,3,4,5};

           int i;

           for(i=0;i<number.length;i++){
                 System.out.print(number[i]+"  ");
           }
      }
}

Now look at the output,

enter image description here

Ok,Successfully printed elements of one dimension array..Now I am going to consider two dimension array..I'll declare two dimension array as "number2" and print the elements using "Arrays.deepToString()" keyword.Before using that You will have to import 'java.util.Arrays' library.

 import java.util.Arrays;

 class demo{
      public static void main(String a[]){

           int[][] number2={{1,2},{3,4},{5,6}};`

           System.out.print(Arrays.deepToString(number2));
      }
}

consider the output,

enter image description here

At the same time , Using two for loops ,2D elements can be printed..Thank you !

Upvotes: -1

Peter Lawrey
Peter Lawrey

Reputation: 533780

This is marked as a duplicate for printing a byte[]. Note: for a byte array there are additional methods which may be appropriate.

You can print it as a String if it contains ISO-8859-1 chars.

String s = new String(bytes, StandardChars.ISO_8559);
System.out.println(s);
// to reverse
byte[] bytes2 = s.getBytes(StandardChars.ISO_8559);

or if it contains a UTF-8 string

String s = new String(bytes, StandardChars.UTF_8);
System.out.println(s);
// to reverse
byte[] bytes2 = s.getBytes(StandardChars.UTF_8);

or if you want print it as hexadecimal.

String s = DatatypeConverter.printHexBinary(bytes);
System.out.println(s);
// to reverse
byte[] bytes2 = DatatypeConverter.parseHexBinary(s);

or if you want print it as base64.

String s = DatatypeConverter.printBase64Binary(bytes);
System.out.println(s);
// to reverse
byte[] bytes2 = DatatypeConverter.parseBase64Binary(s);

or if you want to print an array of signed byte values

String s = Arrays.toString(bytes);
System.out.println(s);
// to reverse
String[] split = s.substring(1, s.length() - 1).split(", ");
byte[] bytes2 = new byte[split.length];
for (int i = 0; i < bytes2.length; i++)
    bytes2[i] = Byte.parseByte(split[i]);

or if you want to print an array of unsigned byte values

String s = Arrays.toString(
               IntStream.range(0, bytes.length).map(i -> bytes[i] & 0xFF).toArray());
System.out.println(s);
// to reverse
String[] split = s.substring(1, s.length() - 1).split(", ");
byte[] bytes2 = new byte[split.length];
for (int i = 0; i < bytes2.length; i++)
    bytes2[i] = (byte) Integer.parseInt(split[i]); // might need a range check.

Upvotes: 2

Mehdi
Mehdi

Reputation: 1485

In java 8 :

Arrays.stream(myArray).forEach(System.out::println);

Upvotes: 1

Ravi Patel
Ravi Patel

Reputation: 129

There Are Following way to print Array 

 // 1) toString()  
    int[] arrayInt = new int[] {10, 20, 30, 40, 50};  
    System.out.println(Arrays.toString(arrayInt));

// 2 for loop()
    for (int number : arrayInt) {
        System.out.println(number);
    }

// 3 for each()
    for(int x: arrayInt){
         System.out.println(x);
     }

Upvotes: 6

fjnk
fjnk

Reputation: 62

// array of primitives:
int[] intArray = new int[] {1, 2, 3, 4, 5};

System.out.println(Arrays.toString(intArray));

output: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

// array of object references:
String[] strArray = new String[] {"John", "Mary", "Bob"};

System.out.println(Arrays.toString(strArray));

output: [John, Mary, Bob]

Upvotes: 3

hasham.98
hasham.98

Reputation: 73

For-each loop can also be used to print elements of array:

int array[] = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5};
for (int i:array)
    System.out.println(i);

Upvotes: 4

Aftab
Aftab

Reputation: 2963

Different Ways to Print Arrays in Java:

  1. Simple Way 

    List<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
list.add("One");
list.add("Two");
list.add("Three");
list.add("Four");
// Print the list in console
System.out.println(list);

Output: [One, Two, Three, Four]

  1. Using toString()

    String[] array = new String[] { "One", "Two", "Three", "Four" };
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(array));

Output: [One, Two, Three, Four]

  1. Printing Array of Arrays

    String[] arr1 = new String[] { "Fifth", "Sixth" };
String[] arr2 = new String[] { "Seventh", "Eight" };
String[][] arrayOfArray = new String[][] { arr1, arr2 };
System.out.println(arrayOfArray);
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(arrayOfArray));
System.out.println(Arrays.deepToString(arrayOfArray));

Output: [[Ljava.lang.String;@1ad086a [[Ljava.lang.String;@10385c1, [Ljava.lang.String;@42719c] [[Fifth, Sixth], [Seventh, Eighth]]

Resource: Access An Array

Upvotes: 18

suatCoskun
suatCoskun

Reputation: 912

In java 8 it is easy. there are two keywords

  1. stream: Arrays.stream(intArray).forEach

  2. method reference: ::println

    int[] intArray = new int[] {1, 2, 3, 4, 5};
Arrays.stream(intArray).forEach(System.out::println);

If you want to print all elements in the array in the same line, then just use print instead of println i.e. 

int[] intArray = new int[] {1, 2, 3, 4, 5};
Arrays.stream(intArray).forEach(System.out::print);

Another way without method reference just use:

int[] intArray = new int[] {1, 2, 3, 4, 5};
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(intArray));

Upvotes: 9

Dylan Black
Dylan Black

Reputation: 262

You could loop through the array, printing out each item, as you loop. For example:

String[] items = {"item 1", "item 2", "item 3"};

for(int i = 0; i < items.length; i++) {

    System.out.println(items[i]);

}

Output:

item 1
item 2
item 3

Upvotes: 7

Greesh Kumar
Greesh Kumar

Reputation: 1888

It should always work whichever JDK version you use:

System.out.println(Arrays.asList(array));

It will work if the Array contains Objects. If the Array contains primitive types, you can use wrapper classes instead storing the primitive directly as..

Example: 

int[] a = new int[]{1,2,3,4,5};

Replace it with:

Integer[] a = new Integer[]{1,2,3,4,5};

Update :

Yes ! this is to be mention that converting an array to an object array OR to use the Object's array is costly and may slow the execution. it happens by the nature of java called autoboxing.

So only for printing purpose, It should not be used. we can make a function which takes an array as parameter and prints the desired format as

public void printArray(int [] a){
        //write printing code
}

Upvotes: 12

Eric Baker
Eric Baker

Reputation: 1147

In JDK1.8 you can use aggregate operations and a lambda expression:

String[] strArray = new String[] {"John", "Mary", "Bob"};

// #1
Arrays.asList(strArray).stream().forEach(s -> System.out.println(s));

// #2
Stream.of(strArray).forEach(System.out::println);

// #3
Arrays.stream(strArray).forEach(System.out::println);

/* output:
John
Mary
Bob
*/

Upvotes: 113

Debosmit Ray
Debosmit Ray

Reputation: 5413

I came across this post in Vanilla #Java recently. It's not very convenient writing Arrays.toString(arr);, then importing java.util.Arrays; all the time.

Please note, this is not a permanent fix by any means. Just a hack that can make debugging simpler.

Printing an array directly gives the internal representation and the hashCode. Now, all classes have Object as the parent-type. So, why not hack the Object.toString()? Without modification, the Object class looks like this:

public String toString() {
    return getClass().getName() + "@" + Integer.toHexString(hashCode());
}

What if this is changed to:

public String toString() {
    if (this instanceof boolean[])
        return Arrays.toString((boolean[]) this);
    if (this instanceof byte[])
        return Arrays.toString((byte[]) this);
    if (this instanceof short[])
        return Arrays.toString((short[]) this);
    if (this instanceof char[])
        return Arrays.toString((char[]) this);
    if (this instanceof int[])
        return Arrays.toString((int[]) this);
    if (this instanceof long[])
        return Arrays.toString((long[]) this);
    if (this instanceof float[])
        return Arrays.toString((float[]) this);
    if (this instanceof double[])
        return Arrays.toString((double[]) this);
    if (this instanceof Object[])
        return Arrays.deepToString((Object[]) this);
    return getClass().getName() + "@" + Integer.toHexString(hashCode());
}

This modded class may simply be added to the class path by adding the following to the command line: -Xbootclasspath/p:target/classes.

Now, with the availability of deepToString(..) since Java 5, the toString(..) can easily be changed to deepToString(..) to add support for arrays that contain other arrays.

I found this to be a quite useful hack and it would be great if Java could simply add this. I understand potential issues with having very large arrays since the string representations could be problematic. Maybe pass something like a System.outor a PrintWriter for such eventualities.

Upvotes: 9

laylaylom
laylaylom

Reputation: 1814

Starting with Java 8, one could also take advantage of the join() method provided by the String class to print out array elements, without the brackets, and separated by a delimiter of choice (which is the space character for the example shown below):

String[] greeting = {"Hey", "there", "amigo!"};
String delimiter = " ";
String.join(delimiter, greeting)

The output will be "Hey there amigo!".

Upvotes: 51

Haim Raman
Haim Raman

Reputation: 12043

Using org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils.join(*) methods can be an option
For example:

String[] strArray = new String[] { "John", "Mary", "Bob" };
String arrayAsCSV = StringUtils.join(strArray, " , ");
System.out.printf("[%s]", arrayAsCSV);
//output: [John , Mary , Bob]

I used the following dependency 

<groupId>org.apache.commons</groupId>
<artifactId>commons-lang3</artifactId>
<version>3.3.2</version>

Upvotes: 4

Rhyous
Rhyous

Reputation: 6690

Arrays.deepToString(arr) only prints on one line. 

int[][] table = new int[2][2];

To actually get a table to print as a two dimensional table, I had to do this: 

System.out.println(Arrays.deepToString(table).replaceAll("],", "]," + System.getProperty("line.separator")));

It seems like the Arrays.deepToString(arr) method should take a separator string, but unfortunately it doesn't.

Upvotes: 30

user3369011
user3369011

Reputation: 

public class printer {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String a[] = new String[4];
        Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in);
        System.out.println("enter the data");
        for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
            a[i] = sc.nextLine();
        }
        System.out.println("the entered data is");
        for (String i : a) {
            System.out.println(i);
        }
      }
    }

Upvotes: 2

Mohamed Idris
Mohamed Idris

Reputation: 442

A simplified shortcut I've tried is this:

    int x[] = {1,2,3};
    String printableText = Arrays.toString(x).replaceAll("[\\[\\]]", "").replaceAll(", ", "\n");
    System.out.println(printableText);

It will print

1
2
3

No loops required in this approach and it is best for small arrays only

Upvotes: 4

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