How to loop over a list in Java in a minimum step

Question

I have the following for loop, where the StringList is

List<String> stringList= new ArrayList<String>();

for (String elementList : stringList) 
   {
        if (elementList =="string1")
        {
            Key=1;
        }
        else if (elementList =="string2")
        {
            Key=0;
        }
   // do some code here 
   }

If the (stringList) includes 20,000 string words. The repeating of the words "string1" and "string2" is 10,000 for each in (stringList). it takes time to check every word in the for loop.

How can we make the for loop iterate only two times because there are only two types of words which are "string1" and "string2" regardless of it's repeating in the (stringList)

[How do I compare strings in Java?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/513832/how-do-i-compare-strings-in-java) — Pshemo, Mar 01 '15 at 18:58
what are you using `Key` for? BTW, I guess you're looking for `break;` there. — Rohit Jain, Mar 01 '15 at 18:58
As in you want to stop as soon as you have seen each value 1 time? — Brett Okken, Mar 01 '15 at 19:00
This is too vague. Do you want to do "some code" for each element or not? What are you doing with `Key`? Can you elaborate on your *real* use case? — RealSkeptic, Mar 01 '15 at 19:00
Using a HashSet and its contains method would be significantly more efficient. — assylias, Mar 01 '15 at 19:02
Brett Okken... yes you are correct i need to stop as soon as i found each value one time — Mehdi Academic 2014, Mar 01 '15 at 19:02
RealSkeptic... the (Key) is an integer and I want to assign it one time as soon as I found each string 1 time — Mehdi Academic 2014, Mar 01 '15 at 19:04

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 01 '15 at 19:01

0

As i said you should use method equals for comparing two strings. And also i think you can use method contains() to check if your list contains some strings

contains(Object o) Returns true if this list contains the specified element.

if (stringList.contains("string1"))
    Key = 1;
if (stringList.contains("string2"))
    key = 2;

answered Mar 01 '15 at 19:01

user3127896

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user3127896... if the stringList include 100 types of string value... please help – Mehdi Academic 2014 Mar 01 '15 at 19:05

How to loop over a list in Java in a minimum step

1 Answers1