---

id: 40

slug: "stream-tolist"

title: "Stream.toList()"

category: "streams"

difficulty: "beginner"

jdkVersion: "16"

oldLabel: "Java 8"

modernLabel: "Java 16+"

oldApproach: "Collectors.toList()"

modernApproach: ".toList()"

oldCode: |-

List<String> result = stream

.filter(s -> s.length() > 3)

.collect(Collectors.toList());

modernCode: |-

List<String> result = stream

.filter(s -> s.length() > 3)

.toList();

summary: "Terminal toList() replaces the verbose collect(Collectors.toList())."

explanation: "Stream.toList() returns an unmodifiable list. It's equivalent to .collect(Collectors.toUnmodifiableList())\

\ but much shorter. Note: the result is immutable, unlike Collectors.toList()."

whyModernWins:

- icon: "📏"

title: "7 chars vs 24"

desc: ".toList() replaces .collect(Collectors.toList())."

- icon: "🔒"

title: "Immutable"

desc: "The result list cannot be modified."

- icon: "📖"

title: "Fluent"

desc: "Reads naturally at the end of a pipeline."

support:

state: "available"

description: "Widely available since JDK 16 (March 2021)"

prev: "streams/collectors-flatmapping"

next: "streams/stream-mapmulti"

related:

- "collections/unmodifiable-collectors"

- "streams/stream-gatherers"

- "streams/stream-iterate-predicate"

docs:

- title: "Stream.toList()"

href: "https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/25/docs/api/java.base/java/util/stream/Stream.html#toList()"