Java Program to Find Common Elements Between Two Arrays

Last Updated : 08 Mar, 2021

Given two arrays and our task is to find their common elements.
Examples:

Input:  Array1 = ["Article", "for", "Geeks", "for", "Geeks"], 
        Array2 = ["Article", "Geeks", "Geeks"]
Output: [Article,Geeks]

Input:  Array1 = ["a", "b", "c", "d", "e", "f"], 
        Array2 = ["b", "d", "e", "h", "g", "c"]
Output: [b, c, d, e]

Using Iterative Methods

Approach:

Get the two java Arrays.
Iterate through each and every element of the arrays one by one and check whether they are common in both.
Add each common element in the set for unique entries.

Java

// Java Program to find common elements
// in two Arrays
// Using iterative method
 
import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
 
class GFG {
    private static void FindCommonElemet(String[] arr1,
                                         String[] arr2)
    {
        Set<String> set = new HashSet<>();
        for (int i = 0; i < arr1.length; i++) {
            for (int j = 0; j < arr2.length; j++) {
                if (arr1[i] == arr2[j]) {
 
                    // add common elements
                    set.add(arr1[i]);
                    break;
                }
            }
        }
        for (String i : set) {
            System.out.print(i + " ");
        }
    }
 
    // main method
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
 
        // create Array 1
        String[] arr1
            = { "Article", "in", "Geeks", "for", "Geeks" };
 
        // create Array 2
        String[] arr2 = { "Geeks", "for", "Geeks" };
 
        // print Array 1
        System.out.println("Array 1: "
                           + Arrays.toString(arr1));
 
        // print Array 2
        System.out.println("Array 2: "
                           + Arrays.toString(arr2));
 
        System.out.print("Common Elements: ");
 
        // Find the common elements
        FindCommonElemet(arr1, arr2);
    }
}

Output

Array 1: [Article, in, Geeks, for, Geeks]
Array 2: [Geeks, for, Geeks]
Common Elements: Geeks for

Time Complexity: O(n^2)

Using Hashsets:

By using the retainAll() method of the HashSet we can find the common elements between two arrays.

Syntax:

// This method keeps only the common elements
// of both Collection in Collection1.

Collections1.retainAll(Collections2)

Approach :

Get the two Arrays.
Create two hashsets and add elements from arrays tp those sets.
Find the common elements in both the sets using Collection.retainAll() method. This method keeps only the common elements of both Collection in Collection1.
Set 1 now contains the common elements only.

Below is the implementation of the above approach:

Java

// Java Program to find common elements
// in two Arrays using hashsets
// and retainAll() method
import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
 
class GFG {
 
    // function to create hashsets
    // from arrays and find
    // their common element
    public static void FindCommonElements(int[] arr1,
                                          int[] arr2)
    {
        // create hashsets
        Set<Integer> set1 = new HashSet<>();
        Set<Integer> set2 = new HashSet<>();
 
        // Adding elements from array1
        for (int i : arr1) {
            set1.add(i);
        }
 
        // Adding elements from array2
        for (int i : arr2) {
            set2.add(i);
        }
 
        // use retainAll() method to
        // find common elements
        set1.retainAll(set2);
        System.out.println("Common elements- " + set1);
    }
 
    // main method
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        // create Array 1
        int[] arr1
            = { 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81, 100 };
 
        // create Array 2
        int[] arr2 = { 100, 9, 64, 7, 36, 5, 16, 3, 4, 1 };
 
        // print Array 1
        System.out.println("Array 1: "
                           + Arrays.toString(arr1));
        // print Array 2
        System.out.println("Array 2: "
                           + Arrays.toString(arr2));
        FindCommonElements(arr1, arr2);
    }
}

Output

Array 1: [1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81, 100]
Array 2: [100, 9, 64, 7, 36, 5, 16, 3, 4, 1]
Common elements- [16, 64, 1, 4, 36, 100, 9]

Time Complexity: O(n)
Using HashSet:

Approach:

1. Add all elements of first array into a hashset.

2. Iterate the second array and check whether element present in hashset using contains method. If contains == true, add the element to result in array.

Below is the implementation of the above approach:

Java

// Java program for the above approach
import java.io.*;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.HashSet;
import java.util.Set;
 
class Test {
 
    private static void findCommonElements(int[] arr1,
                                           int[] arr2)
    {
         
        // Check if length of arr1 is greater than 0
        // and length of arr2 is greater than 0
        if (arr1.length > 0 && arr2.length > 0) {
            Set<Integer> firstSet = new HashSet<Integer>();
            for (int i = 0; i < arr1.length; i++) {
                firstSet.add(arr1[i]);
            }
           
            // Iterate the elements of the arr2
            for (int j = 0; j < arr2.length; j++) {
                if (firstSet.contains(arr2[j])) {
                    System.out.println(arr2[j]);
                }
            }
        }
    }
   
    // Driver Code
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        int[] arr1 = new int[] { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 };
        int[] arr2 = new int[] { 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 8 };
       
        // Function Call
        findCommonElements(arr1, arr2);
    }
}

Output

Time Complexity: O(n)

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