Java: Get first item from a collection

Question

If I have a collection, such as Collection strs, how can I get the first item out? I could just call an Iterator, take its first

Answer 1

Guava provides an onlyElement Collector, but only use it if you expect the collection to have exactly one element.

Collection stringCollection = ...;
String string = collection.stream().collect(MoreCollectors.onlyElement())

If you are unsure of how many elements there are, use findFirst.

Optional optionalString = collection.stream().findFirst();