Remove Null Value from String array in java

Question

How to remove null value from String array in java?

String[] firstArray = {"test1","","test2","test4",""};

I need the "firstArray" without null ( empty) values like this

String[] firstArray = {"test1","test2","test4"};

Answer 1

If you want to avoid fencepost errors and avoid moving and deleting items in an array, here is a somewhat verbose solution that uses List:

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

public class RemoveNullValue {
  public static void main( String args[] ) {
    String[] firstArray = {"test1", "", "test2", "test4", "", null};

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

    for(String s : firstArray) {
       if(s != null && s.length() > 0) {
          list.add(s);
       }
    }

    firstArray = list.toArray(new String[list.size()]);
  }
}

Added null to show the difference between an empty String instance ("") and null.

Since this answer is around 4.5 years old, I'm adding a Java 8 example:

import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.stream.Collectors;

public class RemoveNullValue {
    public static void main( String args[] ) {
        String[] firstArray = {"test1", "", "test2", "test4", "", null};

        firstArray = Arrays.stream(firstArray)
                     .filter(s -> (s != null && s.length() > 0))
                     .toArray(String[]::new);    

    }
}

Answer 2

It seems no one has mentioned about using nonNull method which also can be used with streams in Java 8 to remove null (but not empty) as:

String[] origArray = {"Apple", "", "Cat", "Dog", "", null};
String[] cleanedArray = Arrays.stream(firstArray).filter(Objects::nonNull).toArray(String[]::new);
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(origArray));
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(cleanedArray));

And the output is:

[Apple, , Cat, Dog, , null]

[Apple, , Cat, Dog, ]

If we want to incorporate empty also then we can define a utility method (in class Utils(say)):

public static boolean isEmpty(String string) {
        return (string != null && string.isEmpty());
    }

And then use it to filter the items as:

Arrays.stream(firstArray).filter(Utils::isEmpty).toArray(String[]::new);

I believe Apache common also provides a utility method StringUtils.isNotEmpty which can also be used.

Answer 3

If you actually want to add/remove items from an array, may I suggest a List instead?

String[] firstArray = {"test1","","test2","test4",""};
ArrayList<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
for (String s : firstArray)
    if (!s.equals(""))
        list.add(s);

Then, if you really need to put that back into an array:

firstArray = list.toArray(new String[list.size()]);

Answer 4

This is the code that I use to remove null values from an array which does not use array lists.

String[] array = {"abc", "def", null, "g", null}; // Your array
String[] refinedArray = new String[array.length]; // A temporary placeholder array
int count = -1;
for(String s : array) {
    if(s != null) { // Skips over null values. Add "|| "".equals(s)" if you want to exclude empty strings
        refinedArray[++count] = s; // Increments count and sets a value in the refined array
    }
}

// Returns an array with the same data but refits it to a new length
array = Arrays.copyOf(refinedArray, count + 1);

Answer 5

Using Google's guava library

String[] firstArray = {"test1","","test2","test4","",null};

Iterable<String> st=Iterables.filter(Arrays.asList(firstArray),new Predicate<String>() {
    @Override
    public boolean apply(String arg0) {
        if(arg0==null) //avoid null strings 
            return false;
        if(arg0.length()==0) //avoid empty strings 
            return false;
        return true; // else true
    }
});

Answer 6

Quite similar approve as already posted above. However it's easier to read.

/**
 * Remove all empty spaces from array a string array
 * @param arr array
 * @return array without ""
 */
public static String[] removeAllEmpty(String[] arr) {
    if (arr == null)
        return arr;

    String[] result = new String[arr.length];
    int amountOfValidStrings = 0;

    for (int i = 0; i < arr.length; i++) {
        if (!arr[i].equals(""))
            result[amountOfValidStrings++] = arr[i];
    }

    result = Arrays.copyOf(result, amountOfValidStrings);

    return result;
}

Answer 7

A gc-friendly piece of code:

public static<X> X[] arrayOfNotNull(X[] array) {
    for (int p=0, N=array.length; p<N; ++p) {
        if (array[p] == null) {
            int m=p; for (int i=p+1; i<N; ++i) if (array[i]!=null) ++m;
            X[] res = Arrays.copyOf(array, m);
            for (int i=p+1; i<N; ++i) if (array[i]!=null) res[p++] = array[i];
            return res;
        }
    }
    return array;
}

It returns the original array if it contains no nulls. It does not modify the original array.

Answer 8

Those are zero-length strings, not null. But if you want to remove them:

firstArray[0] refers to the first element
firstArray[1] refers to the second element

You can move the second into the first thusly:

firstArray[0]  = firstArray[1]

If you were to do this for elements [1,2], then [2,3], etc. you would eventually shift the entire contents of the array to the left, eliminating element 0. Can you see how that would apply?