How to get an element from a Set?

Question

I have a Set<Integer> in my Java program which is guaranteed to be non-empty. I want to retrieve one of the Integers from this set. I do not care which Integer, I just need some Integer, deterministically or nondeterministically selected from the set, as long as it is in the set. What is the best way to do this?

Answer 1

Why not just take the first element?

return set.iterator().next();

If it's guaranteed to be non-empty, and you don't care which element you retrieve, this sounds about as simple as it gets.

Answer 2

There are a few ways. One is to call iterator(). Then call next() on the Iterator.

Alternatively, you can call toArray then an element from that array (bound by the size of it).