Java 8 Convert Streams to & from Arrays Examples

Converting from Streams to Arrays

Converting a stream to an array is a simple task of using Stream’s toArray() method combined with a method reference to the new array’s type.

For example here we want an array of type String[] so we use a method reference to String[]::new:

package xyz.byexample.java8;

import java.util.stream.Stream;

public class StreamsArrays {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Stream<String> stream = Stream.of("a", "b", "c");
        String[] array = stream.toArray(String[]::new);

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

Output

a
b
c

If we were using some other type, we’d use an appropriate reference to the correct type, e.g. to convert a Stream<Integer> to an array we’d need to use Integer[]::new instead.

Converting from Arrays to Streams

To convert an array to a stream we can use the built-in functions in the Arrays class that makes our task incredibly easy:

Integer[] integers = new Integer[]{1,2,3,4,5};
Stream<Integer> streamOfIntegers = Arrays.stream(integers);