Compare 2 ArrayList elements

Question

Hi,
I want to compare 2 arraylist elements and set only the elemnts which doesnot match in either of the List.
For example:-
List<String> list1 = new ArrayList<String>();
          list1.add("Italy");
          list1.add("US");
          list1.add("England");
          list1.add("Australia");
          list1.add("China");
          List<String> list2 = new ArrayList<String>();
          list2.add("Italy");
          list2.add("US");
          list2.add("England");
          List<String> finalList = new ArrayList<String>();
for (String country1 : list1) {
          for (String country2 : list2) {
          if (!country1.equalsIgnoreCase(country2)) {
               finalList.add(country1);
Here I am comparing both the arraylist elements, and in the FinalList I need capture the elements which are not matching , hence the final List should contains
Australia and China which is not there in the second arraylist (list2). But the output that is displayed for tha above is wriong as it is comparing the each elemnt of list1 with all the elemnts of list2. Instead I want list1.elemnt[0] not equals list2.elemnt[0] followed by list1.element[1] not equal to list2.element[1] , etc.
So that i can capture the elements which doesnot match and set it in the finalList. Here the output should be Australia & China. How we can do the above.
Please clarify.
Thanks.

Answer 1

The test is wrong.
List<String> list1 = new ArrayList<String>();
list1.add("Italy");
list1.add("US");
list1.add("England");
list1.add("Australia");
list1.add("China");
List<String> list2 = new ArrayList<String>();
list2.add("Italy");
list2.add("US");
list2.add("England");
List<String> finalList = new ArrayList<String>();
for (String s1 : list1) {
     boolean found = false;
     for (String s2 : list2) {
          if ((s1!=null && s1.equalsIgnoreCase(s2)) || s1==s2) {
               found = true;
               break;
     if (!found) finalList.add(s1);
}or you can generalize the idea and do this:
static <T> List<T> cmp(List<T> list1, List<T> list2, Comparator<T> comparator) {
     List<T> finalList = new ArrayList<T>();
     for (T s1 : list1) {
          boolean found = false;
          for (T s2 : list2) {
               if (comparator.compare(s1, s2)==0) {
                    found = true;
                    break;
          if (!found) finalList.add(s1);
     return finalList;
static final Comparator<String> stringComparator = new Comparator<String>() {
    @Override public int compare(String o1, String o2) { return o1!=null ? o1.compareToIgnoreCase(o2) : o1==o2 ? 0 : -1; }
static List<String> cmp(List<String> list1, List<String> list2) { return cmp(list1, list2, stringComparator); }
static void test() {
     List<String> list1 = new ArrayList<String>();
     list1.add("Italy");
     list1.add("US");
     list1.add("England");
     list1.add("Australia");
     list1.add("China");
     List<String> list2 = new ArrayList<String>();
     list2.add("Italy");
     list2.add("US");
     list2.add("England");
     List<String> finalList = cmp(list1, list2);
     for (String s : finalList) System.out.println(s);
}Carlo