How to print elements of a Stream in Java 8

Introduced in Java 8, the Stream API is used to process collections of objects. A stream is a sequence of objects that supports various methods which can be pipelined to produce the desired result.
The features of Java stream are –

• A stream is not a data structure instead it takes input from the Collections, Arrays or I/O channels.
• Streams don’t change the original data structure, they only provide the result as per the pipelined methods.
• Each intermediate operation is lazily executed and returns a stream as a result, hence various intermediate operations can be pipelined. Terminal operations mark the end of the stream and return the result.

There are 3 ways to print the elements of a Stream in Java:

1. forEach()
2. println() with collect()
3. peek()

Below are the three ways to print the Stream in detail:

1. Stream forEach(Consumer action): This method performs an action for each element of the stream. Stream forEach(Consumer action) is a terminal operation i.e, it may traverse the stream to produce a result or a side-effect.

   Syntax :

   void forEach(Consumer<? super T> action)
   
   Where, Consumer is a functional interface
   and T is the type of stream elements.
   

   Below is how to print elements of Stream using forEach() method:

   Program 1:

   
   

   
   
   

   // Java code to print the elements of Stream    import java.util.stream.*;    class GFG {     public static void main(String[] args)     {            // Get the stream         Stream<String> stream = Stream.of("Geeks", "For",                                           "Geeks", "A",                                           "Computer", "Portal");            // Print the stream         stream.forEach(s -> System.out.println(s));     } }
   Output:

   Geeks
   For
   Geeks
   A
   Computer
   Portal
   

   Program 2: Using Short hand lambda expression

   
   

   
   
   

   // Java code to print the elements of Stream    import java.util.stream.*;    class GFG {     public static void main(String[] args)     {            // Get the stream         Stream<String> stream = Stream.of("Geeks", "For",                                           "Geeks", "A",                                           "Computer", "Portal");            // Print the stream         stream.forEach(System.out::println);     } }
   Output:

   Geeks
   For
   Geeks
   A
   Computer
   Portal
   

   Program 3: This approach consumes the stream and makes it unavailable for future use. Hence the below code will throw an error since the stream is already consumed.

   
   

   
   
   

   // Java code to print the elements of Stream    import java.util.stream.*;    class GFG {     public static void main(String[] args)     {            // Get the stream         Stream<String> stream = Stream.of("Geeks", "For",                                           "Geeks", "A",                                           "Computer", "Portal");            // Print the stream         stream.forEach(s -> System.out.println(s));            // Since the stream has been already consumed         // this will throw exception         try {                // Print the stream             stream.forEach(s -> System.out.println(s));         }            catch (Exception e) {                System.out.println("\nException: " + e);         }     } }
   Output:

   Geeks
   For
   Geeks
   A
   Computer
   Portal
   
   Exception: java.lang.IllegalStateException: 
   stream has already been operated upon or closed
   

2. Using println() with collect(): This method collects the elements of the stream as a collector instance, for example as List. Hence the printing of List can be done easily using println() method.

   Syntax:

   System.out.println(stream.collect(Collectors.toList()));
   

   Program 1:

   
   

   
   
   

   // Java code to print the elements of Stream    import java.util.stream.*;    class GFG {     public static void main(String[] args)     {            // Get the stream         Stream<String> stream = Stream.of("Geeks", "For",                                           "Geeks", "A",                                           "Computer", "Portal");            // Print the stream         System.out.println(stream.collect(Collectors.toList()));     } }
   Output:

   [Geeks, For, Geeks, A, Computer, Portal]
   

   Program 2: This approach also consumes the stream and makes it unavailable for future use. Hence the below code will throw an error since the stream is already consumed.

   
   

   
   
   

   // Java code to print the elements of Stream    import java.util.stream.*;    class GFG {     public static void main(String[] args)     {            // Get the stream         Stream<String> stream = Stream.of("Geeks", "For",                                           "Geeks", "A",                                           "Computer", "Portal");            // Print the stream         System.out.println(stream.collect(Collectors.toList()));            // Since the stream has been already consumed         // this will throw exception         try {                // Print the stream             System.out.println(stream.collect(Collectors.toList()));         }            catch (Exception e) {                System.out.println("\nException: " + e);         }     } }
   Output:

   [Geeks, For, Geeks, A, Computer, Portal]
   
   Exception: java.lang.IllegalStateException: 
   stream has already been operated upon or closed
   

3. Stream peek(Consumer action): This method returns a stream consisting of the elements of this stream, additionally performing the provided action on each element as elements are consumed from the resulting stream. This is an intermediate operation i.e, it creates a new stream that, when traversed, contains the elements of the initial stream that match the given predicate.

   Syntax :

   Stream<T> 
       peek(Consumer<? super T> action)
   
   Where, Stream is an interface and T is the type of 
   stream elements. action is a non-interfering action
   to perform on the elements as they are consumed 
   from the stream and the function returns the new stream.
   

   Program 1:

   
   

   
   
   

   // Java code to print the elements of Stream    import java.util.stream.*;    class GFG {     public static void main(String[] args)     {            // Get the stream         Stream<String> stream = Stream.of("Geeks", "For",                                           "Geeks", "A",                                           "Computer", "Portal");            // Print the stream using peek()         // by providing a terminal operation count()         stream.peek(s -> System.out.println(s)).count();     } }
   Output:

   Geeks
   For
   Geeks
   A
   Computer
   Portal
   

   Program 2: This approach do not consumes the stream. Hence the below code will not throw any error.

   
   

   
   
   

   // Java code to print the elements of Stream    import java.util.stream.*;    class GFG {     public static void main(String[] args)     {            // Get the stream         Stream<String> stream = Stream.of("Geeks", "For",                                           "GeeksForGeeks", "A",                                           "Computer", "Portal");            // Since the stream is not being consumed         // this will not throw any exception            // Print the stream         stream.filter(s -> s.startsWith("G"))             .peek(s -> System.out.println("Filtered value: " + s))             .map(String::toUpperCase)             .peek(s -> System.out.println("Uppercase value :" + s))             .count();     } }
   Output:

   Filtered value: Geeks
   Uppercase value :GEEKS
   Filtered value: GeeksForGeeks
   Uppercase value :GEEKSFORGEEKS