Converting array iteration to lambda function using Java8

Generally, when you try to refactor code, you should only focus on the necessary changes.

Just because you’re going to use the Stream API, there is no reason to clutter the code with checks for null or empty arrays which weren’t in the loop based code. Neither should you change BigInteger to Integer.

Then, you have two different inputs and want to get distinct results from each of them, in other words, you have two entirely different operations. While it is reasonable to consider sharing common code between them, once you identified identical code, there is no sense in trying to express two entirely different operations as a single operation.

First, let’s see how we would do this for a traditional loop:

static void addToLists(String id, List<Integer> empIdList, List<BigInteger> dateList) {
    String[] array = id.split("-");
    dateList.add(new BigInteger(array[1]));
    empIdList.add(Integer.valueOf(array[2]));
}

List<Integer> empIdAccepted = new ArrayList<>();
List<BigInteger> dateAccepted = new ArrayList<>();

for(EmployeeValidationAccepted acceptedDetail : acceptedDetails) {
    addToLists(acceptedDetail.getId(), empIdAccepted, dateAccepted);
}

List<Integer> empIdRejected = new ArrayList<>();
List<BigInteger> dateRejected = new ArrayList<>();

for(EmployeeValidationRejected rejectedDetail : rejectedDetails) {
    addToLists(rejectedDetail.getAd().getId(), empIdRejected, dateRejected);
}

If we want to express the same as Stream operations, there’s the obstacle of having two results per operation. It truly took until JDK 12 to get a built-in solution:

static Collector<String,?,Map.Entry<List<Integer>,List<BigInteger>>> idAndDate() {
    return Collectors.mapping(s -> s.split("-"),
        Collectors.teeing(
            Collectors.mapping(a -> Integer.valueOf(a[2]), Collectors.toList()),
            Collectors.mapping(a -> new BigInteger(a[1]),  Collectors.toList()),
            Map::entry));
}

Map.Entry<List<Integer>, List<BigInteger>> e;
e = Arrays.stream(acceptedDetails)
        .map(EmployeeValidationAccepted::getId)
        .collect(idAndDate());

List<Integer> empIdAccepted = e.getKey();
List<BigInteger> dateAccepted = e.getValue();

e = Arrays.stream(rejectedDetails)
    .map(r -> r.getAd().getId())
    .collect(idAndDate());

List<Integer> empIdRejected = e.getKey();
List<BigInteger> dateRejected = e.getValue();

Since a method can’t return two values, this uses a Map.Entry to hold them.

To use this solution with Java versions before JDK 12, you can use the implementation posted at the end of this answer. You’d also have to replace Map::entry with AbstractMap.SimpleImmutableEntry::new then.

Or you use a custom collector written for this specific operation:

static Collector<String,?,Map.Entry<List<Integer>,List<BigInteger>>> idAndDate() {
    return Collector.of(
        () -> new AbstractMap.SimpleImmutableEntry<>(new ArrayList<>(), new ArrayList<>()),
        (e,id) -> {
            String[] array = id.split("-");
            e.getValue().add(new BigInteger(array[1]));
            e.getKey().add(Integer.valueOf(array[2]));
        },
        (e1, e2) -> {
            e1.getKey().addAll(e2.getKey());
            e1.getValue().addAll(e2.getValue());
            return e1;
        });
}

In other words, using the Stream API does not always make the code simpler.

As a final note, we don’t need to use the Stream API to utilize lambda expressions. We can also use them to move the loop into the common code.

static <T> void addToLists(T[] elements, Function<T,String> tToId,
                           List<Integer> empIdList, List<BigInteger> dateList) {
    for(T t: elements) {
        String[] array = tToId.apply(t).split("-");
        dateList.add(new BigInteger(array[1]));
        empIdList.add(Integer.valueOf(array[2]));
    }
}

List<Integer> empIdAccepted = new ArrayList<>();
List<BigInteger> dateAccepted = new ArrayList<>();
addToLists(acceptedDetails, EmployeeValidationAccepted::getId, empIdAccepted, dateAccepted);

List<Integer> empIdRejected = new ArrayList<>();
List<BigInteger> dateRejected = new ArrayList<>();
addToLists(rejectedDetails, r -> r.getAd().getId(), empIdRejected, dateRejected);

How about this:

 class EmployeeValidationResult {
    //constructor + getters omitted for brevity
    private final BigInteger date;
    private final Integer employeeId;
}

List<EmployeeValidationResult> accepted = Stream.of(acceptedDetails)
    .filter(Objects:nonNull)
    .map(this::extractValidationResult)
    .collect(Collectors.toList());

List<EmployeeValidationResult> rejected = Stream.of(rejectedDetails)
    .filter(Objects:nonNull)
    .map(this::extractValidationResult)
    .collect(Collectors.toList());


EmployeeValidationResult extractValidationResult(EmployeeValidationAccepted accepted) {
    return extractValidationResult(accepted.getId());
}

EmployeeValidationResult extractValidationResult(EmployeeValidationRejected rejected) {
    return extractValidationResult(rejected.getAd().getId());
}

EmployeeValidationResult extractValidationResult(String id) {
    String[] empIdList = id.split("-");
    BigInteger date = extractDate(empIdList[1])
    Integer empId = extractId(empIdList[2]);

    return new EmployeeValidationResult(date, employeeId);
}

Repeating the filter or map operations is good style and explicit about what is happening. Merging the two lists of objects into one and using instanceof clutters the implementation and makes it less readable / maintainable.