Comparing individual elements of two different arraylists?

Question

I have created a program with two arraylists (packOfCardsOne and packOfCardsTwo) each of which has ten random values stored, I know how to compare the two arraylists but I want to be able to compare individual elements. I as thinking something like this below but I'm unable to get it to work:

  if (packOfCardsOne > packOfCardsTwo) {

      packofCardsOne.get(0);
      packOfCardsTwo.get(0); 
  }

Once compared as part of the if statement I'd then like to have a print statement with some output.

Possible duplicate of [comparing elements of two arrayList in java](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20176087/comparing-elements-of-two-arraylist-in-java) — Julien Lopez, Nov 14 '16 at 12:04
How do you plan to compare the two lists of cards? In order, or something else? — Tim Biegeleisen, Nov 14 '16 at 12:05
I would like to compare each element individually Tim, then product an output and move onto the next element (if that is possible). — I just want to learn., Nov 14 '16 at 12:07
Julien, my question differs as my arraylists consist of random numbers and I want to access individual elements in my array lists and compare them, producing a print statement when one is larger than the other. — I just want to learn., Nov 14 '16 at 12:19

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 14 '16 at 12:23

Assuming you are having 2 ArrayList list1 and list2 with size 10. You can simply iterate one list parallel to second list by comparing the values stored in both the list as shown below -

 List<String> list1 = new ArrayList<String>();
 list1.add("first");
 list1.add("second");
 list1.add("third");
 List<String> list2 = new ArrayList<String>();
 list2.add("first");
 list2.add("second");
 list2.add("third1");
 for (int i = 0; i<list2.size(); i++)
 {
     System.out.println(list1.contains(list2.get(i)));
 }

It will iterate the elements of list1 and compare the value with list2 elements. If value of list1 and list2 are equal it will return true else false.

Roel Strolenberg · Answer 2 · 2016-11-14T12:20:06.147

0

Assuming you have 2 ArrayLists both of size 10, you can loop through them and compare each item individually:

for (int index = 0; index < 10; index++){
    if (packOfCardsOne.get(index) > packOfCardsTwo.get(index)){
        System.out.println("First pack's card is higher...")
    } else {
        System.out.println("Second pack's card is higher...")
    }
}

You can replace the .equals check with whatever you want as I'm unsure what's in the lists

edited Nov 14 '16 at 12:20

answered Nov 14 '16 at 12:05

Roel Strolenberg

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The two size 10 array lists contain random numbers, I want to compare them and product a if statement, with a print statement if the first array list element is larger than the second arraylist element and vice versa. – I just want to learn. Nov 14 '16 at 12:16
Updated my answer, is this more to your liking? This only works if the lists contain integers or doubles/floats etc – Roel Strolenberg Nov 14 '16 at 12:20
Yes thank you Roel, the randoms are integers from 0-10. How would I be able to utilise your code, so that I could do that to each of the 10 elements in the arraylists? – I just want to learn. Nov 14 '16 at 12:25
Oh ok thank you, when I tried to integrate your code with my program I got a few errors such as: illegal start of type for the 'for' and identifier expected for the rest? – I just want to learn. Nov 14 '16 at 12:38
If you have problems integrating this, maybe your java basics is too low and maybe follow a tutorial. The code is very straightforward for any beginning java coder – Roel Strolenberg Nov 14 '16 at 12:45

Comparing individual elements of two different arraylists?

2 Answers2