Arrays
- An array is a container object that holds a fixed number of values of a single type. The length of an array is established when the array is created. After creation, its length is fixed. You have seen an example of arrays already, in the main method of the "Hello World!" application. This section discusses arrays in greater detail.
- Illustration of an array as 10 boxes numbered 0 through 9; an index of 0 indicates the first element in the array
An array of 10 elements.
- Each item in an array is called an element, and each element is accessed by its numerical index. As shown in the preceding illustration, numbering begins with 0. The 9th element, for example, would therefore be accessed at index 8.
The following program, ArrayDemo, creates an array of integers, puts some values in the array, and prints each value to standard output.
class ArrayDemo {
public static void main(String[] args) {
// declares an array of integers
int[] anArray;
// allocates memory for 10 integers
anArray = new int[10];
// initialize first element
anArray[0] = 100;
// initialize second element
anArray[1] = 200;
// and so forth
anArray[2] = 300;
anArray[3] = 400;
anArray[4] = 500;
anArray[5] = 600;
anArray[6] = 700;
anArray[7] = 800;
anArray[8] = 900;
anArray[9] = 1000;
System.out.println("Element at index 0: "
+ anArray[0]);
System.out.println("Element at index 1: "
+ anArray[1]);
System.out.println("Element at index 2: "
+ anArray[2]);
System.out.println("Element at index 3: "
+ anArray[3]);
System.out.println("Element at index 4: "
+ anArray[4]);
System.out.println("Element at index 5: "
+ anArray[5]);
System.out.println("Element at index 6: "
+ anArray[6]);
System.out.println("Element at index 7: "
+ anArray[7]);
System.out.println("Element at index 8: "
+ anArray[8]);
System.out.println("Element at index 9: "
+ anArray[9]);
}
}
The
output from this program is:
Element at index 0: 100
Element at index 1: 200
Element at index 2: 300
Element at index 3: 400
Element at index 4: 500
Element at index 5: 600
Element at index 6: 700
Element at index 7: 800
Element at index 8: 900
Element at index 9: 1000
- declares an array of integers
- int[] array
Creating, Initializing, and Accessing an Array
- One way to create an array is with the new operator. The next statement in the ArrayDemo program allocates an array with enough memory for 10 integer elements and assigns the array to the anArray variable.
//
create an array of integers
anArray = new int[10];
If this statement is missing, then the compiler prints an error like the following, and compilation fails:
ArrayDemo.java:4: Variable anArray may not have been initialized.
The next few lines assign values to each element of the array:
anArray[0] = 100; // initialize first element
anArray[1] = 200; // initialize second element
anArray[2] = 300; // and so forth
Each array element is accessed by its numerical index:
System.out.println("Element 1 at index 0: " + anArray[0]);
System.out.println("Element 2 at index 1: " + anArray[1]);
System.out.println("Element 3 at index 2: " + anArray[2]);
Alternatively, you can use the shortcut syntax to create and initialize an array:
int[] anArray = {
100, 200, 300,
400, 500, 600,
700, 800, 900, 1000
};
- In the Java programming language, a multidimensional array is an array whose components are themselves arrays. This is unlike arrays in C or Fortran. A consequence of this is that the rows are allowed to vary in length, as shown in the following MultiDimArrayDemo program:
class MultiDimArrayDemo {
public static void main(String[] args) {
String[][] names = {
{"Mr. ", "Mrs. ", "Ms. "},
{"Smith", "Jones"}
};
// Mr. Smith
System.out.println(names[0][0] + names[1][0]);
// Ms. Jones
System.out.println(names[0][2] + names[1][1]);
}
}
The output from this program is:
