Stream findFirst() Method in Java

The Stream findFirst() method returns an Optional describing the 1st element of the stream, or an Optional, which has to be empty if the stream is empty.

Syntax:

Here, Optional is the container object that can or cannot fetch a non-null value. T is the type of object.

Exception: If a null element is chosen, then the NullPointerException is thrown.

Example 1:

Observe the following program.

FileName: FindFirstExample.java

import java.util.Optional;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Arrays;
public class FindFirstExample
{
    // main method
    public static void main(String[] argvs) 
    {
        // input list
        List<Integer> lst = Arrays.asList(11, 12, 13, 14, 12, 11);
        // since findFirst() returns an optional 
        Optional<Integer> findfirst = lst.stream().findFirst();
        if (findfirst.isPresent()) 
        {
            Integer outcome = findfirst.get();
            System.out.println(outcome);       // prints 11
        } 
        else 
        {
            // control reaching here means findfirst is empty
            System.out.println("no value.");
        }
        
        // picking the first element that is greater than 11, we 
        // see that the element is 12 as 12 is greater than 11 and 
        // is immediately next to the element 11
        Optional<Integer> findfirst1 = lst.stream().filter(y -> y > 11).findFirst();
        if (findfirst1.isPresent()) 
        {
            System.out.println(findfirst1.get()); // prints 12
        } 
        else 
        {
            // control reaching here means findfirst1 is empty
            System.out.println("no value ");
        }
    }

}

Output:

11
12

Example 2:

Let's see another exmaple of the method findFirst().

FileName: FindFirstExample1.java

import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Optional;
public class FindFirstExample1 
{
    // main method
    public static void main(String[] argvs) 
    {
	// creating a list
        List<String> lst = Arrays.asList("Linked List", "C++", "Java", "Ruby", "C", "Scala");
	// chooses the first element of the stream that is not equal to C++, which is 
	// linked list in our case
        Optional<String> outcome = lst.stream().filter(x -> !x.equalsIgnoreCase("C++")).findFirst();
        if (outcome.isPresent()) 
        {
            System.out.println(outcome.get()); // Linked List
        } 
        else 
        {
            System.out.println("no value");
        }
    }
}

Output:

Linked List

Example 3: Null Exception

As discussed earlier, a NullPointerException is thrown when a null element is chosen. The following program shows the same.

FileName: FindFirstExample2.java

// important import statements
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Optional;
public class FindFirstExample2 
{
    // main method
    public static void main(String[] argvs) 
    {
	// creating a list
        List<String> lst = Arrays.asList(null, "C++", "Java", "Ruby", "C", "Scala");

	// chooses the first element of the stream that is not equal to C++, which is null 
	// in our case
        Optional<String> outcome = lst.stream().filter(x -> !x.equalsIgnoreCase("C++")).findFirst();

        if (outcome.isPresent()) 
        {
	// as the null element is chosen, we get the nullpointerexception
            System.out.println(outcome.get()); 
        } 
        else 
        {
            System.out.println("no value");
        }
    }
}

Output:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot invoke "String.equalsIgnoreCase(String)" because "" is null
	at findFirstExample2.lambda$main$0(findFirstExample2.java:15)
	at java.base/java.util.stream.ReferencePipeline$2$1.accept(ReferencePipeline.java:178)
	at java.base/java.util.Spliterators$ArraySpliterator.tryAdvance(Spliterators.java:1002)
	at java.base/java.util.stream.ReferencePipeline.forEachWithCancel(ReferencePipeline.java:129)
	at java.base/java.util.stream.AbstractPipeline.copyIntoWithCancel(AbstractPipeline.java:527)
	at java.base/java.util.stream.AbstractPipeline.copyInto(AbstractPipeline.java:513)
	at java.base/java.util.stream.AbstractPipeline.wrapAndCopyInto(AbstractPipeline.java:499)
	at java.base/java.util.stream.FindOps$FindOp.evaluateSequential(FindOps.java:150)
	at java.base/java.util.stream.AbstractPipeline.evaluate(AbstractPipeline.java:234)
	at java.base/java.util.stream.ReferencePipeline.findFirst(ReferencePipeline.java:647)
	at findFirstExample2.main(findFirstExample2.java:15)

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