Question

I want to eliminate empty elements within my String array. This is what I have tried so far:

String version = null; 
String[] xml = new String[str.length]; 
for(int i = 0; i <= str.length -1; i++)
{
    if(str[i] == "")
    {

    }
    else
    {
        xml[i] = str[i]; 
    }
}

String version = null; 
String[] xml = new String[str.length]; 
for(int i = 0; i <= str.length -1; i++)
{
    if(!str[i].equals(""))
    {
        xml[i] = str[i]; 
    }
}

String version = null; 
String[] xml = new String[str.length]; 
for(int i = 0; i <= str.length -1; i++)
{
    if(!str[i].isEmpty())
    {
        xml[i] = str[i]; 
    }
}

String version = null; 
String[] xml = new String[str.length]; 
for(int i = 0; i <= str.length -1; i++)
{
    if(str[i].isEmpty() == false)
    {
        xml[i] = str[i]; 
    }
}

No matter which one I try, it always copies all the values. I’ve checked the locals, and it is clear that there are empty arrays within the String array.

Answer 1

You are copying the same length array and using the same indexes. The length is always going to be the same.

List<String> nonBlank = new ArrayList<String>();
for(String s: str) {
    if (!s.trim().isEmpty()) {
        nonBlank.add(s);
    }
}
// nonBlank will have all the elements which contain some characters.
String[] strArr = (String[]) nonBlank.toArray( new String[nonBlank.size()] );