Coming from Javascript, Arrays in Java are confusing?

Coming from Javascript, arrays in Java were confusing to me. Below I would like to discuss how arrays work in Java.

Array Declaration

In Java, an array has to declare with a type. Elements in it has to match the array type as well.

//integer array example, both declarations will work

int [] myArray; 
int myArray [];

//string array example

String [] strArray;
String strArray [];

Give array a size

The size of an array will not change dynamically in Java, so we have to define a size before using it. ArrayList is a better option when we need a dynamic size for a collection of datas.

//using the arrays from the examples above, we can define a size for them

myArray = new int[10];

//we can also perform the declaration and size with one line of code

int [] myArray = new int[10];

Array literal

When we know what elements that an array will have, we can use array literal to declare an array.

//the size of the array is determined by the number of elements were defined

int myArray = new int[]{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8};

//in newer version of Java, we can skip the new int[]

int myArray = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8};

My favorite loop to use to get the array elements

for(int eachNumber : myArray){

 System.out.println(eachNumber);
}

Blog

Coming from Javascript, Arrays in Java are confusing?

Yong Liang

Array Declaration

Give array a size

Array literal

My favorite loop to use to get the array elements

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