Java: Casting Object to Array type

Question

I am using a web service that returns a plain object of the type "Object". Debug shows clearly that there is some sort of Array in this object so I was wondering how I can cast this "Object" to an Array (or similar)?

I tried the following:

Collection<String> arr = (Collection<String>) values;
Vector<String> arr = (Vector<String>) values;
ArrayList<String> arr = (ArrayList<String>) values;

But nothing worked. I always get an InvocationTargetException.

What am I doing wrong?

Edit:

Sadly, I had to remove the link to the image that showed the output of Eclipse's debugger because it was no longer available. Please do not wonder why in the answers an image is mentioned that is not there anymore.

InvocationTargetException contains another Exception. What does it say? — Peter Kofler
– Peter Kofler, Commented Oct 23, 2009 at 6:54

mavrosxristoforos · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-28 10:04:48Z

58

Your values object is obviously an Object[] containing a String[] containing the values.

String[] stringValues = (String[])values[0];

edited Nov 28, 2016 at 10:04

mavrosxristoforos

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answered Oct 23, 2009 at 7:06

gustafc

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Jon Skeet · Accepted Answer · 2009-10-23 07:07:33Z

27

What you've got (according to the debug image) is an object array containing a string array. So you need something like:

Object[] objects = (Object[]) values;
String[] strings = (String[]) objects[0];

You haven't shown the type of values - if this is already Object[] then you could just use (String[])values[0].

Of course even with the cast to Object[] you could still do it in one statement, but it's ugly:

String[] strings = (String[]) ((Object[])values)[0];

answered Oct 23, 2009 at 7:07

Jon Skeet

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