You could use commons lang's ArrayUtils.

array = ArrayUtils.removeElement(array, element)

commons.apache.org library:Javadocs

Answer from Peter Lawrey on Stack Overflow
🌐
GeeksforGeeks
geeksforgeeks.org › java › remove-an-element-at-specific-index-from-an-array-in-java
Remove an Element at Specific Index from an Array in Java - GeeksforGeeks
July 11, 2025 - Arrays have a fixed size, so creating a new array without the target element is often necessary. ... The basic approach to remove an element at a specific index is using a loop. ... // Java program to remove an element // from a specific index ...
Discussions

Having trouble with java arrays, removing an element then returning a new size of an array
I’m on my phone so I’ll just explain what im thinking in pseudo code, but why don’t you just do something like: Create a new array of size n-1 where n is the size of the original array. Iterate over the old array in a for loop, adding each element to the new array. If the element at the ith position equals the element to remove, continue to the next iteration. Would that work? EDIT: I'm at my PC now so here's the code. I ended up doing it a little differently than I mentioned above. Note that it doesn't account for if the element appears multiple times in the array or when the element does not exist. public static void main(String []args) { int[] myArray = { 5,6,9,4 }; int[] newArray = removeElem(myArray, 9); for (int i = 0; i < newArray.length; i++) System.out.print(newArray[i] + " "); } public static int[] removeElem(int[] array, int value) { int index = -1; // First confirm the element to remove exists in the array for (int i = 0; i < array.length; i++) { // If it does, store its index if (array[i] == value) index = i; } // If element exists if (index != -1) { int[] newArray = new int[array.length - 1]; for (int i = 0; i < array.length; i ++) { if (i < index) newArray[i] = array[i]; else if (i > index) newArray[i - 1] = array[i]; } return newArray; } // Do some error handling for if the element does not exist else return array; } Output is: 5 6 4 More on reddit.com
🌐 r/learnprogramming
17
4
July 13, 2018
java - How to remove an item from an array at index? - Stack Overflow
Otherwise, you'll have to implement ... is one element smaller than the original array. Then copy all of the values except the one at the specified index from the old array to the new array. ... Are you sure? i was thinking something like copying everything from the old array (array x) into a new array (array b) up until the index you want to remove then copy ... More on stackoverflow.com
🌐 stackoverflow.com
Remove specific index from array in java - Stack Overflow
Can I remove a specific element from array by mentioning index value? For example can I remove the character d by giving index value 1? char[] words = { 'c', 'd', 'f', 'h', 'j' }; More on stackoverflow.com
🌐 stackoverflow.com
December 28, 2015
[Java] Inserting and deleting elements in an array
Can you tell us a little more about the concept you're not understanding ? (Creating an array? Inserting while looping? Maybe pass-by-reference or pass-by-value ?) edit: Happy cakeday mick5000x ! More on reddit.com
🌐 r/learnprogramming
28
11
January 11, 2013
🌐
DigitalOcean
digitalocean.com › community › tutorials › java-remove-array-elements
Java Remove Array Elements: Methods and Examples | DigitalOcean
May 2, 2025 - To remove an element from an array by index in Java, you need to create a new array with the desired size, copy elements before the index to be removed to the new array, and then copy elements after the index to be removed to the new array, starting from the position of the element to be removed.
🌐
Baeldung
baeldung.com › home › java › java array › removing an element from an array in java
Removing an Element from an Array in Java | Baeldung
June 12, 2024 - A simple way of doing this would be to replace the value stored at index 2 with the value stored at index 3 until we reach the end of the array: Notice that by removing the element in the above manner, the size of the array would remain the ...
🌐
w3resource
w3resource.com › java-exercises › array › java-array-exercise-7.php
Java - Remove a specific element from an array
May 9, 2025 - System.out.println("Original Array : " + Arrays.toString(my_array)); // Define the index of the element to be removed (second element, index 1, value 14). int removeIndex = 1; // Loop to remove the element at the specified index. for (int i ...
🌐
Software Testing Help
softwaretestinghelp.com › home › java › remove/delete an element from an array in java
Remove/Delete An Element From An Array In Java
April 1, 2025 - To remove an element from an array, we first convert the array to an ArrayList and then use the ‘remove’ method of ArrayList to remove the element at a particular index. Once removed, we convert the ArrayList back to the array. The following implementation shows removing the element from an array using ArrayList. import java.util.*; import java.util.stream.*; class Main { public static int[] remove_Element(int[] myArray, int index) { if (myArray == null || index &lt; 0 || index &gt;= myArray.length) { System.out.println("non-existing index"); return myArray; } //array to arrayList List&lt;
🌐
Java67
java67.com › 2012 › 12 › how-to-remove-element-from-array-in-java-example.html
How to Remove an Element from Array in Java with Example | Java67
Here is a complete code example of how to remove an element from Array in Java. In this example, we have used a primitive array, particularly int array and Apache commons ArrayUtils to remove an integer based on its index. The ArrayUtils also provided several overloaded remove() methods for ...
Find elsewhere
🌐
Stack Abuse
stackabuse.com › remove-element-from-an-array-in-java
Remove Element from an Array in Java
December 16, 2021 - Using the method is really simple. We simply supply it with the array we'd like to remove an element from and its index:
🌐
Codidact
software.codidact.com › posts › 289778
How do I remove an element from a Java array? - Software Development
// remove the element of the array at index i int i = 0; for (int j = i; j < N - 1; j++) { A[j] = A[j + 1]; } N -= 1; This is roughly what java.util.ArrayList does underneath for its remove(int) method.
🌐
Netjstech
netjstech.com › 2017 › 07 › how-to-remove-elements-from-array-java.html
How to Remove Elements From an Array Java Program | Tech Tutorials
array in Java is fixed in length. Which means you can't just remove an element from the given index in an array, you will need to shift all the elements that are after the element that has to be removed, to the left to fill the gap left by the removed element.
🌐
Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnprogramming › having trouble with java arrays, removing an element then returning a new size of an array
r/learnprogramming on Reddit: Having trouble with java arrays, removing an element then returning a new size of an array
July 13, 2018 -

So guys i'm having trouble finding a solution for this question. I'm kinda frustrated that i didn't solve this kind of problem during my exam for employment.

Problem: The task is to provide an implementation for the given function. int[] removeElem(int[] array, value), the objective is to find if the array contains the given 'value' inside it. if found then remove the element from the array then return an array with a new size, else return original array.

So far this is what i got:

  public static void main(String[] args) {
  int[] myArray = {5,6,9,4};
  
  int[] newArray = removeElem(myArray,9);
  
  for(int i=0;i<newArray.length;i++){
      System.out.print(newArray[i] + " ");
  }

}

public static int[] removeElem(int[] array, int value){
    int[] tempArray = array;
    int newArrayLength = 0;
    int[] newArray;
    
    for(int index=0;index < tempArray.length; index++){
        if(tempArray[index] == value){
            tempArray[index] = -1;
            newArrayLength++;
        }
    }
    
    newArray = new int[tempArray.length - newArrayLength];
    for(int index=0;index < newArray.length; index++){
        if(tempArray[index] != -1){
            newArray[index] = tempArray[index];
        }
    }
    
    return newArray;
    
}

Unfortunately i can't get it right :/

Edit: Thank you! everyone for suggesting different solutions to this problem, I feel like I need to work more on my solutions and such :|.

Top answer
1 of 5
2
I’m on my phone so I’ll just explain what im thinking in pseudo code, but why don’t you just do something like: Create a new array of size n-1 where n is the size of the original array. Iterate over the old array in a for loop, adding each element to the new array. If the element at the ith position equals the element to remove, continue to the next iteration. Would that work? EDIT: I'm at my PC now so here's the code. I ended up doing it a little differently than I mentioned above. Note that it doesn't account for if the element appears multiple times in the array or when the element does not exist. public static void main(String []args) { int[] myArray = { 5,6,9,4 }; int[] newArray = removeElem(myArray, 9); for (int i = 0; i < newArray.length; i++) System.out.print(newArray[i] + " "); } public static int[] removeElem(int[] array, int value) { int index = -1; // First confirm the element to remove exists in the array for (int i = 0; i < array.length; i++) { // If it does, store its index if (array[i] == value) index = i; } // If element exists if (index != -1) { int[] newArray = new int[array.length - 1]; for (int i = 0; i < array.length; i ++) { if (i < index) newArray[i] = array[i]; else if (i > index) newArray[i - 1] = array[i]; } return newArray; } // Do some error handling for if the element does not exist else return array; } Output is: 5 6 4
2 of 5
2
newArray[index] = tempArray[index]; This is your problem. As you skip elements that are to be removed, the insertion index in newArray must no longer match the read index in tempArray, but you're using the same index for both. You need to use two indices, and only increment the newArray index when you insert an element, while incrementing the tempArray index every time. Also the whole thing would be better if you just used Lists or Streams, but maybe your interviewer didn't want that. It's really best to try to avoid using raw arrays in Java.
🌐
W3Schools
w3schools.com › java › ref_arraylist_remove.asp
Java ArrayList remove() Method
Java Wrapper Classes Java Generics Java Annotations Java RegEx Java Threads Java Lambda Java Advanced Sorting ... How Tos Add Two Numbers Swap Two Variables Even or Odd Number Reverse a Number Positive or Negative Square Root Area of Rectangle Celsius to Fahrenheit Sum of Digits Check Armstrong Num Random Number Count Words Count Vowels in a String Remove Vowels Count Digits in a String Reverse a String Palindrome Check Check Anagram Convert String to Array Remove Whitespace Count Character Frequency Sum of Array Elements Find Array Average Sort an Array Find Smallest Element Find Largest Element Second Largest Array Min and Max Array Merge Two Arrays Remove Duplicates Find Duplicates Shuffle an Array Factorial of a Number Fibonacci Sequence Find GCD Check Prime Number ArrayList Loop HashMap Loop Loop Through an Enum
🌐
How to do in Java
howtodoinjava.com › home › java array › removing items from an array in java
Removing Items from an Array in Java
February 10, 2022 - All methods return a new array, and the original array is not modified. After removing the items, all subsequent array elements are shifted left. remove(array, index) – removes the element at the specified index from the specified array.
🌐
GeeksforGeeks
geeksforgeeks.org › java › removing-element-from-the-specified-index-in-java-arraylist
Removing Element from the Specified Index in Java ArrayList - GeeksforGeeks
March 31, 2023 - Size of list: 5 Flower ArrayList = [red-rose, tulip, sun-flower, marie-gold, orchid] Removing element at index = 2 After removing element Size of list: 4 Flower ArrayList = [red-rose, tulip, marie-gold, orchid]
🌐
CodeProject
codeproject.com › Questions › 5368786 › Remove-element-from-array-in-java
https://www.codeproject.com/Questions/5368786/Remo...
Do not try and find the page. That’s impossible. Instead only try to realise the truth - For those who code; Updated: 1 Jul 2007
🌐
TutorialsPoint
tutorialspoint.com › java › util › arraylist_remove.htm
Java ArrayList remove() Method
The Java ArrayList remove(int index) method removes the element at the specified position in this list. Shifts any subsequent elements to the left (subtracts one from their indices).
🌐
DigitalOcean
digitalocean.com › community › tutorials › java-list-remove-methods-arraylist-remove
How To Use remove() Methods for Java List and ArrayList | DigitalOcean
September 9, 2025 - Some factory-created lists such ... There are two remove() methods to remove elements from the List. ... index): This method removes the element at the specified index and returns it....