Initialization of an ArrayList in one line I want to create a list of options for testing purposes. At first, I did this: ArrayList<String> places = new ArrayList<String>(); places.add("Buenos Aires"); places.add("Córdoba"); places.add("La Plata"); Then I refactored the code as follows: ArrayList<String> places = new ArrayList<String>( Arrays.asList("Buenos Aires", "Córdoba", "La Plata")); Is there a better way to do this? Answer: Actually, probably the "best" way to initialize the ArrayList is the method you wrote, as it does not need to create a new List in any way: ArrayList<String>