No “contains” method for arrays in Java

Modern Java 8 (as well as 11, 17) still misses contains method for arrays. In case you need to check an array for holding an element, you have to either:

• convert it to a list

Arrays.asList(sampleArray).contains(sampleObject);

• use Stream API

boolean found = Arrays.stream(haystack).anyMatch(x -> needle.equals(x));

• write the whole thing yourself with for each

boolean found = false;

for(Fruit f:fruits) {
  found |= f.equals(targetFruit);
  if (found) break;
}

That is a bit of a pity. From good old C you could use a pointer with malloc function to dynamically allocate memory for an array or allocate memory during array initialisation. Both cases the performance is better than using dynamic data structures of lists. However during daily tasks on modern computers the difference between arrays and lists in Java is rarely noticed as it is a memory managed language that runs on top of a virtual machine. Nevertheless it still clicks with that old C-thing for not using the memory in an efficient way.