Here you can find the source of firstElement(Collection
public static <T> T firstElement(Collection<T> c)
//package com.java2s; /******************************************************************************* * Copyright (c) 2010-2015 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 * * Contributors:// w ww.ja v a 2 s .co m * BSI Business Systems Integration AG - initial API and implementation ******************************************************************************/ import java.util.Collection; import java.util.List; import java.util.SortedMap; public class Main { @SuppressWarnings("unchecked") public static <T> T firstElement(Object c) { if (c instanceof Collection<?>) { return (T) firstElement((Collection<?>) c); } return null; } public static <T> T firstElement(Collection<T> c) { if (isEmpty(c)) { return null; } return c.iterator().next(); } public static <T> T firstElement(List<T> c) { if (isEmpty(c)) { return null; } return c.get(0); } public static <T, U> U firstElement(SortedMap<T, U> m) { if (m == null || m.isEmpty()) { return null; } return m.get(m.firstKey()); } public static boolean isEmpty(Collection<?> c) { return c == null || c.isEmpty(); } }