How can I concatenate two arrays in Java?

Question

I need to concatenate two String arrays in Java.

void f(String[] first, String[] second) {
    String[] both = ???
}

What is the easiest way to do this?

Answer 1

If you use this way so you no need to import any third party class.

If you want concatenate String

Sample code for concate two String Array

public static String[] combineString(String[] first, String[] second){
        int length = first.length + second.length;
        String[] result = new String[length];
        System.arraycopy(first, 0, result, 0, first.length);
        System.arraycopy(second, 0, result, first.length, second.length);
        return result;
    }

If you want concatenate Int

Sample code for concate two Integer Array

public static int[] combineInt(int[] a, int[] b){
        int length = a.length + b.length;
        int[] result = new int[length];
        System.arraycopy(a, 0, result, 0, a.length);
        System.arraycopy(b, 0, result, a.length, b.length);
        return result;
    }

Here is Main method

    public static void main(String[] args) {

            String [] first = {"a", "b", "c"};
            String [] second = {"d", "e"};

            String [] joined = combineString(first, second);
            System.out.println("concatenated String array : " + Arrays.toString(joined));

            int[] array1 = {101,102,103,104};
            int[] array2 = {105,106,107,108};
            int[] concatenateInt = combineInt(array1, array2);

            System.out.println("concatenated Int array : " + Arrays.toString(concatenateInt));

        }
    }  

We can use this way also.

Answer 2

A simple variation allowing the joining of more than one array:

public static String[] join(String[]...arrays) {

    final List<String> output = new ArrayList<String>();

    for(String[] array : arrays) {
        output.addAll(Arrays.asList(array));
    }

    return output.toArray(new String[output.size()]);
}

Answer 3

Using the Java API:

String[] f(String[] first, String[] second) {
    List<String> both = new ArrayList<String>(first.length + second.length);
    Collections.addAll(both, first);
    Collections.addAll(both, second);
    return both.toArray(new String[both.size()]);
}

Answer 4

You can append the two arrays in two lines of code.

String[] both = Arrays.copyOf(first, first.length + second.length);
System.arraycopy(second, 0, both, first.length, second.length);

This is a fast and efficient solution and will work for primitive types as well as the two methods involved are overloaded.

You should avoid solutions involving ArrayLists, streams, etc as these will need to allocate temporary memory for no useful purpose.

You should avoid for loops as these are not efficient. The built in methods use block-copy functions that are extremely fast.

Answer 5

How about :

public String[] combineArray (String[] ... strings) {
    List<String> tmpList = new ArrayList<String>();
    for (int i = 0; i < strings.length; i++)
        tmpList.addAll(Arrays.asList(strings[i]));
    return tmpList.toArray(new String[tmpList.size()]);
}

Answer 6

An easy, but inefficient, way to do this (generics not included):

ArrayList baseArray = new ArrayList(Arrays.asList(array1));
baseArray.addAll(Arrays.asList(array2));
String concatenated[] = (String []) baseArray.toArray(new String[baseArray.size()]);