Java Program to Find Common Elements Between Two Arrays

Last Updated : 29 Oct, 2020

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)

Attention reader! Don’t stop learning now. Get hold of all the important Java Foundation and Collections concepts with the Fundamentals of Java and Java Collections Course at a student-friendly price and become industry ready.

My Personal Notes

Related Articles

Using Iterative Methods

Java

Using Hashsets

Java