Nuances of working with arrays

1. Arrays in memory

In the previous examples, the illustrations were a little inaccurate.

When creating arrays (as when creating strings), two separate blocks of memory are allocated: one for storing the array (container) itself and a second block for the variable that stores its address. The picture below represents this clarification:

The memory allocated for the array of 10 int elements and the int[] variable that stores the address of the int array, is shown in green.

For comparison, an ordinary int variable storing the value 199 is shown in blue.

This is a little reminiscent of storing strings in memory, don't you think?

That's right, strings. And just as when you work with strings, you can assign array variables to one another:

int[] a = new int[10];
a[2] = 4;
a[7] = 9;
int[] b = a;

a[9] = b[2] + a[7];

The array object stays right where it was, and the a and b variables store the same address (reference) to the same object. Look at the picture:

2. More details about working with arrays

You can create an array of elements of absolutely any type. To do this, simply write square brackets after the type name. In general, creating an array looks like this:

type[] name = new type[number];

Where type is the type of the elements we will store in the array. Name is the name of the variable we will use to refer to the array, and number is the number of cells in the array.

The example above is the canonical form for creating an array variable and array object. In reality, these are two separate entities.

You can create an array variable separately from an array object:

type[] name;
name = new type[number];

And one more point that is not insignificant:

Examples:

int n = 100;
int[] a = new int[n];

int n = 100;
int[] a = new int[n * 2 + 3];

int n = 100;
int[] a = new int[n];
a[n-1] = 2;
a[n-2] = 3;
a[n/5] = a[n-1] + a[n-2]

// a[99] = 2;
// a[98] = 3;
// a[20] = a[99] + a[98];

3. Array length

As you saw in the previous example, you can create an array variable by itself and then later assign a value (a reference to an array object) to it somewhere in the code. You can even do this:

int[] array;
if (a < 10)
   array = new int[10];
else
   array = new int[20];

And now what else can you do with such an array? How do you know how many elements are in it?

To help with this, arrays have a special property (variable) named length. You can find the length of an array using this expression:

array.length;

Here array is the array variable's name and length is the name of the array's property. The value of the length property cannot be changed: the length property itself can be assigned to other variables, but nothing can be assigned to it (if you try to do this, the program simply will not compile).

We can continue with the previous example like this:

int[] array;
if (a < 10)
   array = new int[10];
else
   array = new int[20];
for (int i = 0; i < array.length; i++)
{
   System.out.println(array[i]);
} 

4. Summary of facts about arrays in Java

Let's recap what we know about arrays:

Fact 1. An array consists of many cells.

Fact 2. You access a specific cell by using its number (index).

Fact 3. All cells are of the same type.

Fact 4. The initial value of all cells is 0 (if the cells store numbers), null (if the cells store object references), or false (if the cells store boolean values). You will learn more about default values in this chapter.

Fact 5. String[] list is just the declaration of a variable. This does not create the container (array object) itself. To use the variable, you need to first create an array (container) and assign it to the variable. See the example below.

Fact 6. When we create an array object (container), we must indicate how large it is, i.e. how many cells it contains. This is done with a statement like: new TypeName[n];

Fact 7. The length of an array can be found using the .length property.

Fact 8. After creating an array, you cannot change the type of its elements or the number of elements that it stores.

String s;
String[] list;

list = new String[10];
int n = list.length;

list = new String[0];

list = null;
System.out.println(list[1]);

list = new String[10];
System.out.println(list[10]);

7

Task

New Java Syntax, level 7, lesson 1

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Separate concepts

The main method prints too many lines of information about various concepts. It would make sense to separate displaying information about hydrogen from displaying information about the island of Java by separating them into different methods. Create a public static void printHydrogenInfo() method, w

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7

Task

New Java Syntax, level 7, lesson 1

Locked

Orderly information

Here is a bad example of using methods: 1. The methods split up a couplet. 2. It's not worth it to wrap a single line of code in a separate method. Rewrite the code so that all text is displayed in the main method, and the rest of the methods are removed. The execution of the program should not chan

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