Difference between ArrayList.clear() and ArrayList.removeAll() in java?

The ArrayList class in Java is a Resizable-array implementation of the List interface. It allows null values.

Java clear() Method V/S removeAll() Method

There are some important differences between the clear() and removeAll (Collection c) methods of the ArrayList class. This table compares these two methods.

Let's see the following example for clear() method -

Example

The clear() method of the ArrayList class removes all elements from the list. The program creates a list with five string elements, then removes all elements using the clear() method and prints empty list.

import java.util.ArrayList;
public class ClearExample {
   public static void main(String[] args){
      //Instantiating an ArrayList object
      ArrayList<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
      list.add("JavaFX");
      list.add("Java");
      list.add("WebGL");
      list.add("OpenCV");
      list.add("Impala");
      System.out.println("Contents of the Array List: \n"+list);
      //Removing the sub list
      list.clear();
      System.out.println("Contents of the ArrayList object after invoking the clear() method: "+list);
   }
}

Output

Contents of the Array List:
[JavaFX, Java, WebGL, OpenCV, Impala]
Contents of the ArrayList object after invoking the clear() method: []

Whereas, the removeAll() method of the ArrayList class accepts another collection object as a parameter and removes all the elements of it from the current ArrayList that are also present in the collection passed as the argument to the method.

Example

import java.util.ArrayList;
public class ClearExample {
   public static void main(String[] args){
      //Instantiating an ArrayList object
      ArrayList<String> list1 = new ArrayList<String>();
      list1.add("JavaFX");
      list1.add("Java");
      list1.add("WebGL");
      list1.add("OpenCV");
      list1.add("OpenNLP");
      list1.add("JOGL");
      list1.add("Hadoop");
      list1.add("HBase");
      list1.add("Flume");
      list1.add("Mahout");
      list1.add("Impala");
      System.out.println("Contents of the Array List1 : \n"+list1);
      ArrayList<String> list2 = new ArrayList<String>();
      list2.add("JOGL");
      list2.add("Hadoop");
      list2.add("HBase");
      list2.add("Flume");
      list2.add("Mahout");
      list2.add("Impala");
      System.out.println("Contents of the Array List1 : \n"+list2);
      //Removing elements
      list1.removeAll(list2);
      System.out.println("Contents of the Array List after removal: \n"+list1);
   }
}

Output

Contents of the Array List1 :
[JavaFX, Java, WebGL, OpenCV, OpenNLP, JOGL, Hadoop, HBase, Flume, Mahout, Impala]
Contents of the Array List1 :
[JOGL, Hadoop, HBase, Flume, Mahout, Impala]
Contents of the Array List after removal:
[JavaFX, Java, WebGL, OpenCV, OpenNLP]