Java Compare Two List's object values?

It's not the most efficient solution but the most terse code would be:

boolean equalLists = listA.size() == listB.size() && listA.containsAll(listB);

Update:

@WesleyPorter is right. The solution above will not work if duplicate objects are in the collection.
For a complete solution you need to iterate over a collection so duplicate objects are handled correctly.

private static boolean cmp( List<?> l1, List<?> l2 ) {
    // make a copy of the list so the original list is not changed, and remove() is supported
    ArrayList<?> cp = new ArrayList<>( l1 );
    for ( Object o : l2 ) {
        if ( !cp.remove( o ) ) {
            return false;
        }
    }
    return cp.isEmpty();
}

Update 28-Oct-2014:

@RoeeGavriel is right. The return statement needs to be conditional. The code above is updated.


ArrayList already have support for this, with the equals method. Quoting the docs

... In other words, two lists are defined to be equal if they contain the same elements in the same order.

It does require you to properly implement equals in your MyData class.

Edit

You have updated the question stating that the lists could have different orders. In that case, sort your list first, and then apply equals.


I got this solution for above problem

public boolean compareLists(List<MyData> prevList, List<MyData> modelList) {
        if (prevList.size() == modelList.size()) {
            for (MyData modelListdata : modelList) {
                for (MyData prevListdata : prevList) {
                    if (prevListdata.getName().equals(modelListdata.getName())
                            && prevListdata.isCheck() != modelListdata.isCheck()) {
                        return  true;

                    }
                }

            }
        }
        else{
            return true;
        }
        return false; 

    }

EDITED:-
How can we cover this... Imagine if you had two arrays "A",true "B",true "C",true and "A",true "B",true "D",true. Even though array one has C and array two has D there's no check that will catch that(Mentioned by @Patashu)..SO for that i have made below changes.

public boolean compareLists(List<MyData> prevList, List<MyData> modelList) {
        if (prevList!= null && modelList!=null && prevList.size() == modelList.size()) {
            boolean indicator = false;
            for (MyData modelListdata : modelList) {
                for (MyData prevListdata : prevList) {
                    if (prevListdata.getName().equals(modelListdata.getName())
                            && prevListdata.isCheck() != modelListdata.isCheck()) {
                        return  true;

                    }
                    if (modelListdata.getName().equals(prevListdata.getName())) {
                        indicator = false;
                        break;
                    } else
                        indicator = true;
                }
                }

            }
        if (indicator)
            return true;
    }
        }
        else{
            return true;
        }
        return false; 

    }