Predicate Searching in Java

There isn't built in support, but Apache Collections and Google Collections both provide Predicate support over collections.

You may find this question and its answers helpful. Same with this developer.com article.

e.g. Using Google Collections:

final Predicate<name> bobRushPredicate = new Predicate<name>() {
   public boolean apply(name n) {
      return "bob".equals(n.getMiddlename()) && "rush".equal(n.getSurname());
   }
}

final List<name> results = Iterables.filter(applicants, bobRushPredicate));

Searching through an array and "speed is very important" don't really go together. Unless if your array will be very small then searching through an array will never be quick. This is the equivalent of a full table scan in a database, performance no matter how you go about it will be poor. The key to finding things quickly is to use an indexed structure. You can still have an array if you absolutely need it but the searching should be done using another data structure. Check out a Hash or Tree based collection since they organize data in a way that make it very fast to retrieve. TreeSet, TreeMap, HashSet, HashMap, etc. Hashes index data on a hashed key, Trees are similar but also store their data in a sorted order.

Streams and lambda

Java 8 added lambda expressions and the stream API, so support is built-in now.

Name[] applicants = new Name[4];

applicants[0] = new Name("john", "bob", "rush");
applicants[1] = new Name("joe", "bob", "rushden");
applicants[2] = new Name("jack", "bob", "rushden");
applicants[3] = new Name("jake", "bob", "rushden");

Optional<Name> result = Arrays.stream(applicants)
    .filter(name -> name.middlename.equals("bob") && name.surname.equals("rush"))
    .findAny();
    
result.ifPresent(name -> System.out.println(name));

There are lots of options available here. You can get the first name to match by switching .findAny() to .findFirst() or run the search in parallel by inserting .parallel() after .stream(applicants), for example.