Finding all the values from one specific element

I have a list of animals and some information about them, what do I do if I want a user to be able to find for an animal and its information by typing the animal's name? I have stored the animals in a list like this:

List<Animal> an = new ArrayList<Animal>();
Animal a4 = new Animal();
a4.add("Tiffany", 10, "Giraffe", "Grass");
a4.add("Mayo", 30, "Elephant", "Water");
a4.add("Simba", 30, "Turtle", "Leaves");

I assume you've an Animal class like this:

public class Animal {
	String name;
	int age;
	String breed;
	String eats;

   // getters, setters, constructor with fields

}

with Java 8:

List<Animal> an = new ArrayList<Animal>();
an.add(new Animal("Tiffany", 10, "Giraffe", "Grass"));
an.add(new Animal("Mayo", 30, "Elephant", "Water"));
an.add(new Animal("Simba", 30, "Turtle", "Leaves"));

// String name = "Mayo"; // commented to get the user input with Scanner
Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in);
System.out.println("Enter the animal's name, please...");
String name = scan.nextLine();

Optional<Animal> foundAnimal = an.stream().filter(animal -> animal.getName().equals(name)).findFirst();

if (foundAnimal.isPresent()) { // if the animal is in the list
	System.out.println("Animals name: " + foundAnimal.get().getName() + "\n" + "Animals age: "
			+ foundAnimal.get().getAge());
}

Also you can achieve this by using a simple foreach loop:

List<Animal> an = new ArrayList<Animal>();
an.add(new Animal("Tiffany", 10, "Giraffe", "Grass"));
an.add(new Animal("Mayo", 30, "Elephant", "Water"));
an.add(new Animal("Simba", 30, "Turtle", "Leaves"));

//String name = "Mayo"; // commented to get the user input with Scanner
Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in);
System.out.println("Enter the animal's name, please...");
String name = scan.nextLine();

for (Animal animal : an) {
	if (animal.getName().equals(name)) {
		System.out.println("Animals name: " + animal.getName() + "\n" + "Animals age: " + animal.getAge());
	}
}

Output:

Animals name: Mayo
Animals age: 30

Use Map

Map<String,Animal> animalsMap=new HashMap<String,Animal>();
animalsMap.put("Tiffany",new Animal("Tiffany", 10, "Giraffe", "Grass"));
animalsMap.put("Tiffany",new Animal("Mayo", 30, "Elephant", "Water"));
animalsMap.put("Simba",new Animal("Simba", 30, "Turtle", "Leaves"));

then to get an animal use:

animalsMap.get("simba")

this can be used with multiple animals called simba if you combine list with map:

Map<String,List<Animal>> animalsMap=new HashMap<String,Animal>();
List<Animal> animalList = new ArrayList<Animal>();
animalList.add(new Animal()
Animal a4 = new Animal("Tiffany", 10, "Giraffe", "Grass");
animalList.add(a4);
Animal a4 = new Animal("Tiffany", 11, "boar", "meat");
animalList.add(a4);
animalsMap.put("Tiffany",animalList );

List<Animal> animalList = new ArrayList<Animal>();
animalList.add(new Animal()
Animal a4 = new Animal("simba", 10, "Giraffe", "Grass");
animalList.add(a4);
Animal a4 = new Animal("simba", 11, "boar", "meat");
animalList.add(a4);
animalsMap.put("simba",animalList );

last of all if you insist on using a list:

Animal result;
list.stream().forEach((a)->{if (a.getName().equals("simba") {result=a});});

There are problems with your logic. You have creted an ArrayList which will store Animal class objects, so, u need to use an.add(new Animal ( parameters / details)) and later iterate over it. Use the following code for reference -

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
public class Animal {
private String name;
private int num;
private String type;
private String food;
public Animal(String name, int num, String type, String food) {
super();
this.name = name;
this.num = num;
this.type = type;
this.liveon = food;
}
public String getName() {
return name;
}
@Override
public String toString() {
return "Animal [name=" + name + ", num=" + num + ", type=" + type + ", 
food=" + food + "]";
}
public static void main(String [] args) {
List<Animal> an = new ArrayList<Animal>();
// Add Address objects to the ArrayList
an.add(new Animal("Tiffany", 10, "Giraffe", "Grass"));
an.add(new Animal("Mayo", 30, "Elephant", "Water"));
an.add(new Animal("Simba", 30, "Turtle", "Leaves"));
// Iterate over the ArrayList
for(Animal a:an){
if(a.getName() == "Simba"){
System.out.println(a.toString());
}
}
}
}