Return the first list where items from the second list are removed

Summary

Remove all elements from the first list that are present in the second list, returning the filtered result.

Syntax 

${removeall;<list1>[;<list2>]}

Parameters

  • list1: Source list from which elements will be removed
  • list2: (Optional) List of elements to remove from list1

Behavior

  • If only one list is provided, returns an empty string
  • If two lists are provided, returns list1 with all elements from list2 removed
  • Performs exact string matching (not pattern matching)
  • Order of remaining elements is preserved from list1

Examples 

# Remove specific packages
all-packages = com.example.api, com.example.impl, com.example.test
test-packages = com.example.test
production-packages = ${removeall;${all-packages};${test-packages}}
# Returns: com.example.api,com.example.impl

# Remove dependencies
all-deps = foo.jar, bar.jar, baz.jar, test.jar
test-deps = test.jar
runtime-deps = ${removeall;${all-deps};${test-deps}}
# Returns: foo.jar,bar.jar,baz.jar

# Remove multiple items
items = a, b, c, d, e
to-remove = b, d
result = ${removeall;${items};${to-remove}}
# Returns: a,c,e

# No second list - returns empty
${removeall;foo,bar,baz}
# Returns: (empty)

# Remove from build path
full-buildpath = ${buildpath}, ${testpath}
exclude-items = junit, mockito
-buildpath: ${removeall;${full-buildpath};${exclude-items}}

Use Cases

  1. Package Exclusion: Remove specific packages from export or import lists
  2. Dependency Management: Exclude certain dependencies from build paths
  3. List Filtering: Remove known unwanted elements from a list
  4. Configuration: Filter out test or development-only items from production builds

Notes

  • Uses exact string matching, not regular expressions
  • For pattern-based filtering, use reject or filterout
  • Elements are compared as complete strings
  • If an element in list2 doesn’t exist in list1, it’s simply ignored
  • Returns empty string if only one argument is provided
  • retainall - Keep only elements present in another list (opposite operation)
  • reject / filterout - Remove elements matching a regex pattern
  • filter / select - Keep elements matching a regex pattern
  • uniq - Remove duplicate elements

See test cases in MacroTestsForDocsExamples.java