Java get last element of a collection

A Collection is not a necessarily ordered set of elements so there may not be a concept of the "last" element. If you want something that's ordered, you can use a SortedSet which has a last() method. Or you can use a List and call mylist.get(mylist.size()-1);

If you really need the last element you should use a List or a SortedSet. But if all you have is a Collection and you really, really, really need the last element, you could use toArray() or you could use an Iterator and iterate to the end of the list.

For example:

public Object getLastElement(final Collection c) {
    final Iterator itr = c.iterator();
    Object lastElement = itr.next();
    while(itr.hasNext()) {
        lastElement = itr.next();
    }
    return lastElement;
}

Iterables.getLast from Google Guava. It has some optimization for Lists and SortedSets too.

It is not very efficient solution, but working one:

public static <T> T getFirstElement(final Iterable<T> elements) {
    return elements.iterator().next();
}

public static <T> T getLastElement(final Iterable<T> elements) {
    T lastElement = null;

    for (T element : elements) {
        lastElement = element;
    }

    return lastElement;
}