String Utility Methods: Merging two String arrays

This is another simple Java String utility/util method, which can be used to merge two arrays of String values. This takes care of eliminating the duplicates and also does null checking. If you are dealing with multiple String arrays then it could be useful method.

/**
  * This String utility or util method can be used to merge 2 arrays of
  * string values. If the input arrays are like this array1 = {"a", "b" ,
  * "c"} array2 = {"c", "d", "e"} Then the output array will have {"a", "b" ,
  * "c", "d", "e"}
  * 
  * This takes care of eliminating duplicates and checks null values.
  * 
  * @param values
  * @return
  */
 public static String[] mergeStringArrays(String array1[], String array2[]) {
  if (array1 == null || array1.length == 0)
   return array2;
  if (array2 == null || array2.length == 0)
   return array1;
  List array1List = Arrays.asList(array1);
  List array2List = Arrays.asList(array2);
  List result = new ArrayList(array1List);  
  List tmp = new ArrayList(array1List);
  tmp.retainAll(array2List);
  result.removeAll(tmp);
  result.addAll(array2List);  
  return ((String[]) result.toArray(new String[result.size()]));
 }