Java get last element of a collection

Question

I have a collection, I want to get the last element of the collection. What\'s the most straighforward and fast way to do so?

One solution is to first toArray(), and

Answer 1

A Collection is not a necessarily ordered set of elements so there may not be a concept of the "last" element. If you want something that's ordered, you can use a SortedSet which has a last() method. Or you can use a List and call mylist.get(mylist.size()-1);

If you really need the last element you should use a List or a SortedSet. But if all you have is a Collection and you really, really, really need the last element, you could use toArray() or you could use an Iterator and iterate to the end of the list.

For example:

public Object getLastElement(final Collection c) {
    final Iterator itr = c.iterator();
    Object lastElement = itr.next();
    while(itr.hasNext()) {
        lastElement = itr.next();
    }
    return lastElement;
}