Efficient intersection of two List in Java?

Question

Question is simple:

I have two List

List columnsOld = DBUtils.GetColumns(db, TableName);
List columnsNew = DBUtils.GetCol         


        

Answer 1

Since retainAll won't touch the argument collection, this would be faster:

List columnsOld = DBUtils.GetColumns(db, TableName); 
List columnsNew = DBUtils.GetColumns(db, TableName); 

for(int i = columnsNew.size() - 1; i > -1; --i){
    String str = columnsNew.get(i);
    if(!columnsOld.remove(str))
        columnsNew.remove(str);
}

The intersection will be the values left in columnsNew. Removing already compared values fom columnsOld will reduce the number of comparisons needed.