Hello Yokesh,
This functionality already exists in ArrayUtils (subarray()) and
StringUtils (substring()).
Gary
On Sun, Jul 27, 2025, 12:06 Yokesh Chowdary <bollineniyok...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I'd like to propose adding a new utility method slice() to Apache Commons
> Lang that brings Python-style slicing capabilities to Java for Collections,
> arrays (primitive and wrapper types), and String.
> The proposed method would follow the form: *slice(input, start, end, step)*
>
> This would be a highly reusable utility that simplifies what is currently
> verbose or error-prone logic in standard Java. It could live in a new class
> like *SliceUtils *or be integrated into existing utility classes such
> as *ArrayUtils
> *and *StringUtils*.
>
> *Highlights:*
> 1) Supports positive and negative indices for start,end and step
> 2) Works on Collections, Arrays and Strings
>
> *Examples:*
> List<String> names = Arrays.asList("Hello","Hi","Bye");
> SliceUtils.slice(names, 0,2); // returns ["Hello", "Hi"]
>
> String s = "abcdef";
> SliceUtils.slice(s, 1, 4); // returns "bcd"
>
> int[] numbers = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6};
> SliceUtils.slice(numbers, 0, -1, 2); // returns [1, 3, 5]
>
> If the community agrees this is in scope for Commons Lang, I’d be happy to
> implement the feature with full test coverage and documentation.
>
> Looking forward to your thoughts.
>
> Regards,
> Yokesh
> [bollineniyok...@gmail.com]
>
