One liner to check if element is in the list

Use Arrays.asList:

if( Arrays.asList("a","b","c").contains("a") )

There is a boolean contains(Object obj) method within the List interface.

You should be able to say:

if (list.contains("a")) {
    System.out.println("It's there");
}

According to the javadoc:

boolean contains(Object o)


Returns true if this list contains the specified element. 
More formally, returns true if and only if this list contains at 
least one element e such that (o==null ? e==null : o.equals(e)).

In JDK7:

if ({"a", "b", "c"}.contains("a")) {

Assuming the Project Coin collections literals project goes through.

Edit: It didn't.