How to print elements of a Stream in Java 8

Last Updated : 11 Jul, 2025

Introduced in Java 8, the Stream API is used to process collections of objects. A stream is a sequence of objects that supports various methods which can be pipelined to produce the desired result. The features of Java stream are –

A stream is not a data structure instead it takes input from the Collections, Arrays or I/O channels.
Streams don’t change the original data structure, they only provide the result as per the pipelined methods.
Each intermediate operation is lazily executed and returns a stream as a result, hence various intermediate operations can be pipelined. Terminal operations mark the end of the stream and return the result.

There are 3 ways to print the elements of a Stream in Java:

forEach()
println() with collect()
peek()

Below are the three ways to print the Stream in detail:

Stream forEach(Consumer action): This method performs an action for each element of the stream. Stream forEach(Consumer action) is a terminal operation i.e, it may traverse the stream to produce a result or a side-effect. Syntax :

void forEach(Consumer<? super T> action)

Where, Consumer is a functional interface
and T is the type of stream elements.

Below is how to print elements of Stream using forEach() method: Program 1:

Java

// Java code to print the elements of Stream

import java.util.stream.*;

class GFG {
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {

        // Get the stream
        Stream<String> stream = Stream.of("Geeks", "For",
                                          "Geeks", "A",
                                          "Computer", "Portal");

        // Print the stream
        stream.forEach(s -> System.out.println(s));
    }
}

Output:

Geeks
For
Geeks
A
Computer
Portal

Program 2: Using Short hand lambda expression

Java

// Java code to print the elements of Stream

import java.util.stream.*;

class GFG {
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {

        // Get the stream
        Stream<String> stream = Stream.of("Geeks", "For",
                                          "Geeks", "A",
                                          "Computer", "Portal");

        // Print the stream
        stream.forEach(System.out::println);
    }
}

Output:

Geeks
For
Geeks
A
Computer
Portal

Program 3: This approach consumes the stream and makes it unavailable for future use. Hence the below code will throw an error since the stream is already consumed.

Java

// Java code to print the elements of Stream

import java.util.stream.*;

class GFG {
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {

        // Get the stream
        Stream<String> stream = Stream.of("Geeks", "For",
                                          "Geeks", "A",
                                          "Computer", "Portal");

        // Print the stream
        stream.forEach(s -> System.out.println(s));

        // Since the stream has been already consumed
        // this will throw exception
        try {

            // Print the stream
            stream.forEach(s -> System.out.println(s));
        }

        catch (Exception e) {

            System.out.println("\nException: " + e);
        }
    }
}

Output:

Geeks
For
Geeks
A
Computer
Portal

Exception: java.lang.IllegalStateException: 
stream has already been operated upon or closed

Using println() with collect(): This method collects the elements of the stream as a collector instance, for example as List. Hence the printing of List can be done easily using println() method. Syntax:

System.out.println(stream.collect(Collectors.toList()));

Program 1:

Java

// Java code to print the elements of Stream

import java.util.stream.*;

class GFG {
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {

        // Get the stream
        Stream<String> stream = Stream.of("Geeks", "For",
                                          "Geeks", "A",
                                          "Computer", "Portal");

        // Print the stream
        System.out.println(stream.collect(Collectors.toList()));
    }
}

Output:

[Geeks, For, Geeks, A, Computer, Portal]

Program 2: This approach also consumes the stream and makes it unavailable for future use. Hence the below code will throw an error since the stream is already consumed.

Java

// Java code to print the elements of Stream

import java.util.stream.*;

class GFG {
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {

        // Get the stream
        Stream<String> stream = Stream.of("Geeks", "For",
                                          "Geeks", "A",
                                          "Computer", "Portal");

        // Print the stream
        System.out.println(stream.collect(Collectors.toList()));

        // Since the stream has been already consumed
        // this will throw exception
        try {

            // Print the stream
            System.out.println(stream.collect(Collectors.toList()));
        }

        catch (Exception e) {

            System.out.println("\nException: " + e);
        }
    }
}

Output:

[Geeks, For, Geeks, A, Computer, Portal]

Exception: java.lang.IllegalStateException: 
stream has already been operated upon or closed

Stream peek(Consumer action): This method returns a stream consisting of the elements of this stream, additionally performing the provided action on each element as elements are consumed from the resulting stream. This is an intermediate operation i.e, it creates a new stream that, when traversed, contains the elements of the initial stream that match the given predicate. Syntax :

Stream<T> 
    peek(Consumer<? super T> action)

Where, Stream is an interface and T is the type of 
stream elements. action is a non-interfering action
to perform on the elements as they are consumed 
from the stream and the function returns the new stream.

Program 1:

Java

// Java code to print the elements of Stream

import java.util.stream.*;

class GFG {
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {

        // Get the stream
        Stream<String> stream = Stream.of("Geeks", "For",
                                          "Geeks", "A",
                                          "Computer", "Portal");

        // Print the stream using peek()
        // by providing a terminal operation count()
        stream.peek(s -> System.out.println(s)).count();
    }
}

Output:

Geeks
For
Geeks
A
Computer
Portal

Program 2: This approach do not consumes the stream. Hence the below code will not throw any error.

Java

// Java code to print the elements of Stream

import java.util.stream.*;

class GFG {
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {

        // Get the stream
        Stream<String> stream = Stream.of("Geeks", "For",
                                          "GeeksForGeeks", "A",
                                          "Computer", "Portal");

        // Since the stream is not being consumed
        // this will not throw any exception

        // Print the stream
        stream.filter(s -> s.startsWith("G"))
            .peek(s -> System.out.println("Filtered value: " + s))
            .map(String::toUpperCase)
            .peek(s -> System.out.println("Uppercase value :" + s))
            .count();
    }
}

Output:

Filtered value: Geeks
Uppercase value :GEEKS
Filtered value: GeeksForGeeks
Uppercase value :GEEKSFORGEEKS

Convert a Set to Stream in Java

RishabhPrabhu

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Practice Tags :

Java

How to print elements of a Stream in Java 8

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