Searching in a ArrayList with custom objects for certain strings

The easy way is to make a for where you verify if the atrrtibute name of the custom object have the desired string

    for(Datapoint d : dataPointList){
        if(d.getName() != null && d.getName().contains(search))
           //something here
    }

I think this helps you.

try this

ArrayList<Datapoint > searchList = new ArrayList<Datapoint >();
String search = "a";
int searchListLength = searchList.size();
for (int i = 0; i < searchListLength; i++) {
if (searchList.get(i).getName().contains(search)) {
//Do whatever you want here
}
}

UPDATE: Using Java 8 Syntax

List<DataPoint> myList = new ArrayList<>();
//Fill up myList with your Data Points

List<DataPoint> dataPointsCalledJohn = 
    myList
    .stream()
    .filter(p-> p.getName().equals(("john")))
    .collect(Collectors.toList());

If you don't mind using an external libaray - you can use Predicates from the Google Guava library as follows:

class DataPoint {
    String name;

    String getName() { return name; }
}

Predicate<DataPoint> nameEqualsTo(final String name) {
    return new Predicate<DataPoint>() {

        public boolean apply(DataPoint dataPoint) {
            return dataPoint.getName().equals(name);
        }
    };
}

public void main(String[] args) throws Exception {

    List<DataPoint> myList = new ArrayList<DataPoint>();
    //Fill up myList with your Data Points

    Collection<DataPoint> dataPointsCalledJohn =
            Collections2.filter(myList, nameEqualsTo("john"));

}

Probably something like:

ArrayList<DataPoint> myList = new ArrayList<DataPoint>();
//Fill up myList with your Data Points

//Traversal
for(DataPoint myPoint : myList) {
    if(myPoint.getName() != null && myPoint.getName().equals("Michael Hoffmann")) {
        //Process data do whatever you want
        System.out.println("Found it!");
     }
}