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Initialize a CollectionTag(s): Language


The regular way 
import java.util.List;
import java.util.ArrayList;
public class InitCollections {
  public static void main(String args[]) {
    ArrayList<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
    list.add("Bart");
    list.add("Lisa");
    list.add("Marge");
    list.add("Barney");
    list.add("Homer");
    list.add("Maggie");
    dump(list);
  }

  public static void dump(List<String> list) {
    for (String s:list) {
      System.out.println(s);
    }
  }
}
Using a static initializer 
import java.util.List;
import java.util.ArrayList;
public class InitCollections {
  static ArrayList<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();

  static {
    list.add("Bart");
    list.add("Lisa");
    list.add("Marge");
    list.add("Barney");
    list.add("Homer");
    list.add("Maggie");
  }
  public static void main(String args[]) {
    dump(list);
  }

  public static void dump(List<String> list) {
    for (String s:list) {
      System.out.println(s);
    }
  }
}
Using the Double Brace Initialization.
Careful with this one because it can cause memory leak. 
import java.util.List;
import java.util.ArrayList;
public class InitCollections {

  static ArrayList<String> list = new ArrayList<String>() {{
    add("Bart");
    add("Lisa");
    add("Marge");
    add("Barney");
    add("Homer");
    add("Maggie");
  }};

  public static void main(String args[]) {
    dump(list);
  }

  public static void dump(List<String> list) {
    for (String s:list) {
      System.out.println(s);
    }
  }
}
Use Arrays.asList() 
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Arrays;
public class InitCollections {

  public static void main(String args[]) {
    List list = Arrays.asList("Bart", "Lisa", "Marge", "Homer", "Maggie");
    dump(list);
  }

  public static void dump(List<String> list) {
    for (String s:list) {
      System.out.println(s);
    }
  }
}
Using Static import

First a small static class 

package com.rgagnon.howto;

import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;

public class CollectionUtils {
  public static <T> List<T> List(T...elems){
    return Arrays.asList( elems );
  }
}
then 
package com.rgagnon.howto;

import static com.rgagnon.howto.CollectionUtils.List;
import java.util.List;

public class InitCollections {

  public static void main(String args[]) {
    List<String> list = List("Bart", "Lisa", "Marge", "Homer", "Maggie");
    dump(list);
  }

  public static void dump(List<String> list) {
    for (String s:list) {
      System.out.println(s);
    }
  }
}
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