If you're using Java 8
List<String> list = new ArrayList<>();
boolean containsSearchStr = list.stream().anyMatch("search_value"::equalsIgnoreCase);
Baeldung
baeldung.com › home › java › java string › case-insensitive searching in arraylist
Case-Insensitive Searching in ArrayList | Baeldung
March 7, 2025 - If this is the case, we probably want to create a particular ArrayList<String> type, which supports the case-insensitive contains() method natively. So next, let’s create a subclass of ArrayList<String>: public class IgnoreCaseStringList extends ArrayList<String> { public IgnoreCaseStringList() { } public IgnoreCaseStringList(Collection<? extends String> c) { super(c); } @Override public boolean contains(Object o) { String searchStr = (String) o; for (String s : this) { if (searchStr.equalsIgnoreCase(s)) { return true; } } return false; } }
Top answer 1 of 16
260
If you're using Java 8
List<String> list = new ArrayList<>();
boolean containsSearchStr = list.stream().anyMatch("search_value"::equalsIgnoreCase);
2 of 16
35
I'm guessing you mean ignoring case when searching in a string?
I don't know any, but you could try to convert the string to search into either to lower or to upper case, then search.
// s is the String to search into, and seq the sequence you are searching for.
bool doesContain = s.toLowerCase().contains(seq);
Edit: As Ryan Schipper suggested, you can also (and probably would be better off) do seq.toLowerCase(), depending on your situation.
How To Ignore Case When Comparing ArrayList Elements To String ?
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December 9, 2022java - Checking if an ArrayList contains a certain String while being case insensitive - Stack Overflow
How can i search through an ArrayList using the .contains method while being case insensitive? I've tried .containsIgnoreCase but found out that the IgnoreCase method only works for Strings. Here'... More on stackoverflow.com
java - Array contains() without case sensitive lookup? - Stack Overflow
Can I somehow tell the array.contains() method to not make the lookup case sensitive? List data = Arrays.asList( "one", Two", "tHRee"); //lots of entries (100+) data.contains("three"); ... The duplicate is for .NET not Java.. More on stackoverflow.com
java - ArrayList contains case sensitivity - Stack Overflow
Would compare two different sets ignoring case and return true, in this particular situation and your comparision would work without any issue. ... Looking at the Java API, there is no such method for contains. ... Write your own contains method, which should iterate through your ArrayList entities, and do a manual check. ArrayList list ... More on stackoverflow.com
Java Code Geeks
examples.javacodegeeks.com › home › java development › core java
Case Insensitive String Handling in Java Lists - Java Code Geeks
February 28, 2024 - If the loop completes without finding a match, the method returns false, indicating that the searchString is not present in the list. To verify whether the containsIgnoreCase() method works as expected, we test it in the main method of the Java ...
amitph
amitph.com › home › java › case-insensitive search in java arraylists
Case-Insensitive Search in Java ArrayLists - amitph
November 22, 2024 - public static boolean ... false; }Code language: Java (java) The method iterates over the given List and tries to match elements with the given text, ignoring the case....
Baeldung
baeldung.com › home › java › java list › check if a list contains a string element while ignoring case
Check if a List Contains a String Element While Ignoring Case | Baeldung
March 7, 2025 - Sometimes, we want to case-insensitively check if a string is an element in a string list. In this quick tutorial, we’ll explore various methods and strategies to solve this common problem in Java. List provides the convenient contains() method to check if a given value exists in the list.
Reddit
reddit.com › r/javahelp › how to ignore case when comparing arraylist elements to string ?
r/javahelp on Reddit: How To Ignore Case When Comparing ArrayList Elements To String ?
December 9, 2022 -
import java.util.ArrayList;
public class WordsCounter {
public static int occurences(String string, ArrayList<String> words){
int number = 0;
for(int i = 0; i < words.size(); i++){
if(words.get(i).equalsIgnoreCase(string)){
number++;
}
}
return number;
}
}I want to make a method that takes a string and a list of words as parameters, and returns how many of the words in the list could be found in the string at least once. It doesn't have to be the word exactly, just that a part of the string matches, like such:
If the String was "Sunshine is nice", and the list elements were "shine" and "nice", it would return 2.
I can't get it to work with the ignore of case, the program doesn't ignore case despite the method I used. I looked up String methods and equalsIgnoreCase seemed to be a good one but it does not work. I don't know if it's because it can't be applied to list elements (although they are Strings). Do any of you know how I should think regarding this?
Top answer 1 of 4
4
For this case you should use contains instead of equals; in the standard library we don’t have a function for containsIgnoreCase, so you have to write your own or use a library.
2 of 4
2
sunshine is nice does not equal sunshine, nor does it equal nice. You need to look at substring and loop through the words in the string one by one.
Top answer 1 of 4
8
You will need to iterate over the list and check each element. This is what is happening in the contains method. Since you are wanting to use the equalsIgnoreCase method instead of the equals method for the String elements you are checking, you will need to do it explicitly. That can either be with a for-each loop or with a Stream (example below is with a Stream).
private final List<String> list = new ArrayList<>();
public void addIfNotPresent(String str) {
if (list.stream().noneMatch(s -> s.equalsIgnoreCase(str))) {
list.add(str);
}
}
2 of 4
6
If you are using Java7, simply override the contains() method,
public class CastInsensitiveList extends ArrayList<String> {
@Override
public boolean contains(Object obj) {
String object = (String)obj;
for (String string : this) {
if (object.equalsIgnoreCase(string)) {
return true;
}
}
return false;
}
}
If you are using Java 8.0, using streaming API,
List<String> arrayList = new ArrayList<>();
arrayList.stream().anyMatch(string::equalsIgnoreCase);
Top answer 1 of 2
51
contains just check if an object is present in the List. So you can't do a case insensitive lookup here, because "three" is a different object than "Three".
A simple approach to solve this would be
public boolean containsCaseInsensitive(String s, List<String> l){
for (String string : l){
if (string.equalsIgnoreCase(s)){
return true;
}
}
return false;
}
and then
containsCaseInsensitive("three", data);
Java 8+ version:
public boolean containsCaseInsensitive(String s, List<String> l){
return l.stream().anyMatch(x -> x.equalsIgnoreCase(s));
}
2 of 2
-1
it will require you to write your own contains() method.
pointers for custom contains():
- iterate over all the elements in the list.
- compare the parameter string with all the values in
to make comparison case-insensitive be sure to apply any of toLowerCase or toUpperCase on BOTH parameter and the current element.
List list; public boolean contains(String str){
for(int i=0;i<list.size();i++){ if(list.elementAt(i).toLowerCase().Equals(str.toLowerCase())) return true; } return false; }
Top answer 1 of 16
66
You can use this exactly like you'd use any other ArrayList. You can pass this List out to other code, and external code won't have to understand any string wrapper classes.
public class CustomStringList3 extends ArrayList<String> {
@Override
public boolean contains(Object o) {
String paramStr = (String)o;
for (String s : this) {
if (paramStr.equalsIgnoreCase(s)) return true;
}
return false;
}
}
2 of 16
53
In Java8, using anyMatch
List<String> list = Arrays.asList("XYZ", "ABC");
String matchingText = "xYz";
boolean isMatched = list.stream().anyMatch(matchingText::equalsIgnoreCase);
Overclock.net
overclock.net › home › forums › software, programming and coding › coding and programming
Java List.Contains -- Case Insensitive? | Overclock.net
June 20, 2008 - Is there a way to use List.Contains(var) in case-insensitive form? E.g. if the list had "LyokoHaCk" and I plugged in "lyokohack" for the variable, it would still return true. I've tried iterating this and converting it to a string array then looping, but no luck! Thanks for the help!
Roy Tutorials
roytuts.com › home › java › searching an element in java arraylist
Searching an element in Java ArrayList - Roy Tutorials
September 27, 2016 - Case insensitive search · CopyCollapse · package com.roytuts.java.arraylist; import java.util.ArrayList; import java.util.List; public class SearchInArrayListCaseInsensitive { private boolean contains(String str, List<String> list) { for (String s : list) { if (str.equalsIgnoreCase(s)) return true; } return false; } private int indexOf(String str, List<String> list) { if (str != null) { for (int i = 0; i < list.size(); i++) { if (str.equalsIgnoreCase(list.get(i))) { return i; } } } return -1; } public static void main(String[] args) { SearchInArrayListCaseInsensitive insensitive = new SearchInArrayListCaseInsensitive(); List<String> list = new ArrayList<>(); list.add("A"); list.add("B"); list.add("C"); list.add("D"); list.add("E"); boolean found = insensitive.contains("a", list); System.out.println("element a : " + (found ?
Kotlinlang
slack-chats.kotlinlang.org › t › 8023272 › a-contains-on-list-lt-string-gt-with-caseinsensitive-boolean
a `contains` on `List lt String gt ` with `caseInsensitive B kotlinlang #stdlib
November 30, 2022 - ... we should not be adding new case sensitivity APIs that don't take locale into consideration Locale is currently JVM-only thus, not a great fit for stdlib currently IMO ... equals(ignoreCase = true) does not handle some non-English characters ...
Educative
educative.io › answers › what-is-stringutilscontainsignorecase-in-java
What is StringUtils.containsIgnoreCase in Java?
containsIgnoreCase is a static method of the StringUtils class that checks whether a given string contains the complete search string as a whole, while ignoring the case considerations.
Java2Blog
java2blog.com › home › core java › string › java string contains ignore case
Java String contains Ignore Case - Java2Blog
August 26, 2021 - For example, The result is true ... is using a regex pattern to find matching strings. If we use a (?i) argument in the matches method, we make it case-insensitive....
Websparrow
websparrow.org › home › check hashset contains element case insensitive in java
Check HashSet contains element case insensitive in Java - Websparrow
July 14, 2019 - boolean containsMyCar7 = containMyCarCaseInSensitive(cars, "mAHinDrA"); System.out.println(containsMyCar7); // return true private static boolean containMyCarCaseInSensitive(Set<String> cars, String myCar) { for (String car : cars) { if (car.equalsIgnoreCase(myCar)) { return true; } } return false; } Java introduced Iterator interface in JDK 1.2 version. It is applicable for any Collection implemented classes. For more info check: Java Enumeration, Iterator and ListIterator Example
Javapedia
javapedia.net › Collections › 586
Does HashSet ignore String case when contains() method is invoked in Java?
HashSet's contains() method is case sensitive and does not allow the use of comparators. We could use TreeSet instead of HashSet which allow Comparator thus facilitating case-insensitive search and comparison. Using the comparator String.CASE_INSENSITIVE_ORDER we could perform case ignored search.
javathinking
javathinking.com › blog › option-to-ignore-case-with-contains-method
Is There an Option to Ignore Case with .contains() Method in Java? Case-Insensitive DVD Title Search in ArrayList — javathinking.com
Use anyMatch() with a predicate that compares elements using String.equalsIgnoreCase(), which ignores case. public static boolean containsIgnoreCaseStream(List<String> list, String searchTerm) { if (searchTerm == null) return false; return ...
Baeldung
baeldung.com › home › java › java string › case-insensitive string matching in java
Case-Insensitive String Matching in Java | Baeldung
August 28, 2025 - In this tutorial, we looked at a few different ways to check a String for a substring, while ignoring the case in Java. We looked at using String.toLowerCase() and toUpperCase(), String.matches(), String.regionMatches(), Apache Commons StringUtils.containsIgnoreCase(), and Pattern.matcher().find().
Javatpoint
javatpoint.com › containsignorecase-method-in-java
containsIgnoreCase() Method in Java - Javatpoint
containsIgnoreCase() Method in Java with java tutorial, features, history, variables, programs, operators, oops concept, array, string, map, math, methods, examples etc.
Bukkit
bukkit.org › threads › equalsignorecase-list.354783
Solved - EqualsIgnoreCase List? | Bukkit Forums
April 12, 2015 - hai guys, so basicly all i need is my plugin to take a string, and turn it into a list of every combination of caps and lower case possible, here is an...