Java 8 create map a list of a complex type to list of one of its fields -

i have list complex type , want figure neat way construct list 1 of fields using java 8's streams. let's take example:

public static class test {     public test(string name) {         this.name = name;     }     public string getname() {         return name;     }     private string name;     // other fields } 

and imagine have list<test> l;. want create new list contains values of name of elements in l. 1 possible solution found following:

list<string> names = l.stream().map(u ->u.getname()).     collect(collectors.<string> tolist()); 

but wondering if there better way - map list of given type list of different type.

using method references shorter :

list<string> names = l.stream().map(test::getname).     collect(collectors.tolist()); 

you can't avoid @ least 2 stream methods, since must first convert each test instance string instance (using map()) , must run terminal operation on stream in order process stream pipeline (in case chose collect stream of strings list).