Java Stream findFirst/findAny

last modified May 25, 2025

In this article we shows how to find first or any element in Java streams.

Java Stream

A Java Stream is a sequence of elements derived from a data source that supports aggregate operations. Unlike collections, streams do not store elements; instead, they process and compute elements on demand. Streams are typically used to handle data from sources such as collections, arrays, or I/O resources, enabling efficient processing and transformation.

The findFirst method retrieves the first element of a stream and returns it wrapped in an Optional. If the stream is empty, it returns an empty Optional. This method is useful when order matters, ensuring that the first available item is selected.

The findAny method retrieves an arbitrary element from the stream and returns it wrapped in an Optional. If the stream is empty, it returns an empty Optional. This method is particularly useful when working with parallel streams, as it allows retrieval of any available element without guaranteeing order.

Both methods help safely extract elements from a stream without causing exceptions when dealing with empty data sets, making them valuable for functional programming approaches in Java.

Java Stream findFirst example

In the next example we use the findFirst method.

void main() {

    var words = List.of("war", "cup", "cloud", "alert", "be", "ocean", "book");
    var empty = List.of();

    var first = words.stream().findFirst().orElse("not found");
    System.out.println(first);

    var first2 = empty.stream().findFirst().orElse("not found");
    System.out.println(first2);
}

We find first elements of the list of words.

var words = List.of("war", "cup", "cloud", "alert", "be", "ocean", "book");
var empty = List.of();

We have two lists of strings. One has seven words, the other is empty.

var first = words.stream().findFirst().orElse("not found");

We find the first element of the list. If no element is found, we return "not found" string.

$ java Main.java
war
not found

In the second example, we filter a list of words and then find its first matching element.

void main() {

    var words = List.of("war", "cup", "cloud", "alert", "be",
            "water", "warm", "ocean", "book");

    var first = words.stream().filter(e -> e.startsWith("w"))
            .findFirst().orElse("not found");
    System.out.println(first);
}

In the example, we find the first word that starts with "w".

$ java Main.java
war

Java Stream findAny example

In the next example, we use the findAny method.

void main() {

    var words = List.of(
            new User("John Doe", "gardener"),
            new User("Roger Roe", "driver"),
            new User("Jozef Kral", "shopkeeper"),
            new User("Boris Brezov", "musician"),
            new User("Lucia Novak", "teacher"));

    var res = words.stream().filter(u -> u.occupation().equals("gardener"))
            .findAny();

    res.ifPresent(System.out::println);
}

record User(String name, String occupation) {
}

We have a list of users. We find out if there is any user who is a gardener.

User[name=Roger Roe, occupation=driver]

Source

Java Stream documentation

In this article we have have presented Java Stream findFirst and findAny methods.

Author

My name is Jan Bodnar, and I am a passionate programmer with extensive programming experience. I have been writing programming articles since 2007. To date, I have authored over 1,400 articles and 8 e-books. I possess more than ten years of experience in teaching programming.

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