import java.util.ArrayList; import java.util.List; class Test { List foo(String[] strs) { final List result = new ArrayList(); int start = -1; for (int i = 0; i < strs.length; i++) { if (i == 42 && start == -1) { start = i; } else if (i != 24 && start != -1) { //c1 result.add("".substring(start)); } } return result; } }