String.equals() with multiple conditions (and one action on result) [duplicate]

Solution 1:

Possibilities:

• Use String.equals():

  if (some_string.equals("john") ||
      some_string.equals("mary") ||
      some_string.equals("peter"))
  {
  }
  

• Use a regular expression:

  if (some_string.matches("john|mary|peter"))
  {
  }
  

• Store a list of strings to be matched against in a Collection and search the collection:

  Set<String> names = new HashSet<String>();
  names.add("john");
  names.add("mary");
  names.add("peter");
  
  if (names.contains(some_string))
  {
  }
  

Solution 2:

if (Arrays.asList("John", "Mary", "Peter").contains(name)) {
}

• This is not as fast as using a prepared Set, but it performs no worse than using OR.
• This doesn't crash when name is NULL (same with Set).
• I like it because it looks clean

Solution 3:

Keep the acceptable values in a HashSet and check if your string exists using the contains method:

Set<String> accept = new HashSet<String>(Arrays.asList(new String[] {"john", "mary", "peter"}));
if (accept.contains(some_string)) {
    //...
}

Solution 4:

Your current implementation is correct. The suggested is not possible but the pseudo code would be implemented with multiple equal() calls and ||.

Solution 5:

If you develop for Android KitKat or newer, you could also use a switch statement (see: Android coding with switch (String)). e.g.

switch(yourString)
{
     case "john":
          //do something for john
     case "mary":
          //do something for mary
}