Fastest way to loop through a group of strings

Question

I am trying to optimize a small class that loops through an array of strings and compares to see if another string equals one of the values, for example:
String test = "this is test5";
String array[] = {"test1","test2","test3, test4,test5,test6,test7,test8"};
for(int i = 0;i < array.length; i++)
if (test.endsWith(array))
return array[i];
}The array that I am using holds closer to 15 values, but this loop can be hit thousands of times a day.  My  question is, are there any faster ways to loop through multiple strings than using arrays?  How do array lists or maps compare?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Answer 1

sarcasteak wrote:
The array that I am using holds closer to 15 values, but this loop can be hit thousands of times a day. 15,000 comparisons a day is nothing. The following code does 15 million String compares in 188 ms.
public class StrCmp {
  public static void main(String... args) {
    String[] arr = {"abc", "sdfasdlfkjasldfjalsdkfj", "234l2kjala34kh", "slkfjal3490u saf",
                    "234lkjasldfhk23k4jhasf", "23l4kjsf", "alsflsdjkf", "aslkdfajsdf3h", "zzzzz",
                    "uhuhuhuhuh", "uhu2huh234234", "n234aoiuf", "234lasdhvoaih3", "zoziucvoiu", "asdflsjfl"};
    long start = System.currentTimeMillis ();
    for (int i = 0; i < 1000000; i++) {
      String str = "qqq";
      for (String str2 : arr) {
        if (str2.endsWith (str)) {
          System.out.println ("match");
    long end = System.currentTimeMillis ();
    System.out.println((end - start) + " millis");
My question is, are there any faster ways to loop through multiple strings than using arrays? How do array lists or maps compare?Before you worry about taking something simple that works and complicating it to make it faster, make sure there's a reason to do so.
If you do in fact need to make it faster, there are several different things you could do, but which one is best depends on a number of factors specific to your particular requirements and use cases.