import java.util.ArrayList; import java.util.List; class Test { List<String> foo(String[] strs) { final List<String> result = new ArrayList<String>(); int start = -1; for (int i = 0; i < strs.length; i++) { if (idx(i) == 42 && start == -1) { start = i; } else if (idx(i) != 24 && start != -1) { result.add("".substring(id<caret>x(start))); } } return result; } private static int idx(int i) { return i; } }