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Chapter 10. Arrays
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Table of Contents
10.1. Array Types Chapter 10. Arrays
10.2. Array Variables
10.3. Array Creation In the Java programming language, arrays are objects (§4.3.1), are dynamically created, and may be assigned to variables of type Object (§4.3.2). All
10.4. Array Access
10.5. Array Store Exception methods of class Object may be invoked on an array.
10.6. Array Initializers
10.7. Array Members An array object contains a number of variables. The number of variables may be zero, in which case the array is said to be empty. The variables contained
10.8. Class Objects for Arrays in an array have no names; instead they are referenced by array access expressions that use non-negative integer index values. These variables are called
10.9. An Array of Characters is Not a String
the components of the array. If an array has n components, we say n is the length of the array; the components of the array are referenced using integer
indices from 0 to n - 1, inclusive.
All the components of an array have the same type, called the component type of the array. If the component type of an array is T, then the type of the array
itself is written T[].
The value of an array component of type float is always an element of the float value set (§4.2.3); similarly, the value of an array component of type
double is always an element of the double value set. It is not permitted for the value of an array component of type float to be an element of the float-
extended-exponent value set that is not also an element of the float value set, nor for the value of an array component of type double to be an element of
the double-extended-exponent value set that is not also an element of the double value set.
The component type of an array may itself be an array type. The components of such an array may contain references to subarrays. If, starting from any
array type, one considers its component type, and then (if that is also an array type) the component type of that type, and so on, eventually one must reach
a component type that is not an array type; this is called the element type of the original array, and the components at this level of the data structure are
called the elements of the original array.
There are some situations in which an element of an array can be an array: if the element type is Object or Cloneable or java.io.Serializable,
then some or all of the elements may be arrays, because any array object can be assigned to any variable of these types.
10.1. Array Types
Array types are used in declarations and in cast expressions (§15.16).
An array type is written as the name of an element type followed by some number of empty pairs of square brackets []. The number of bracket pairs
indicates the depth of array nesting.
An array's length is not part of its type.
The element type of an array may be any type, whether primitive or reference. In particular:
Arrays with an interface type as the element type are allowed.
An element of such an array may have as its value a null reference or an instance of any type that implements the interface.
Arrays with an abstract class type as the element type are allowed.
An element of such an array may have as its value a null reference or an instance of any subclass of the abstract class that is not itself abstract.
The supertypes of an array type are specified in §4.10.3.
The direct superclass of an array type is Object.
Every array type implements the interfaces Cloneable and java.io.Serializable.
10.2. Array Variables
A variable of array type holds a reference to an object. Declaring a variable of array type does not create an array object or allocate any space for array
components. It creates only the variable itself, which can contain a reference to an array.
However, the initializer part of a declarator (§8.3, §9.3, §14.4.1) may create an array, a reference to which then becomes the initial value of the variable.
Example 10.2-1. Declarations of Array Variables
int[] ai; // array of int
short[][] as; // array of array of short
short s, // scalar short
aas[][]; // array of array of short
Object[] ao, // array of Object
otherAo; // array of Object
Collection<?>[] ca; // array of Collection of unknown type
The declarations above do not create array objects. The following are examples of declarations of array variables that do create array objects:
Exception ae[] = new Exception[3];
Object aao[][] = new Exception[2][3];
int[] factorial = { 1, 1, 2, 6, 24, 120, 720, 5040 };
char ac[] = { 'n', 'o', 't', ' ', 'a', ' ',
'S', 't', 'r', 'i', 'n', 'g' };
String[] aas = { "array", "of", "String", };
The [] may appear as part of the type at the beginning of the declaration, or as part of the declarator for a particular variable, or both.
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