Here you can find the source of firstElement(Collection
public static <T> T firstElement(Collection<T> c)
//package com.java2s; /******************************************************************************* * Copyright (c) 2010 BSI Business Systems Integration AG. * All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials * are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0 * which accompanies this distribution, and is available at * http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html * /* w ww .jav a2 s . c o m*/ * Contributors: * BSI Business Systems Integration AG - initial API and implementation ******************************************************************************/ import java.util.Collection; import java.util.List; import java.util.SortedMap; public class Main { public static <T> T firstElement(Collection<T> c) { if (c == null || c.size() == 0) { return null; } else { return c.iterator().next(); } } public static <T, U> U firstElement(SortedMap<T, U> m) { return m.get(m.firstKey()); } public static <T> int size(List<T> list) { if (list == null) { return 0; } return list.size(); } }