An unknown Java syntax

Question

Let's see the following code snippet in Java.

package common;

final public class Main
{
    private static void show(Object... args)    //<--Here it is...
    {
        for(int i=0;i<args.length;i++)
        {
            System.out.println(args[i]);
        }
    }

    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        show(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9);
    }
}

The above code in Java works well and displays numbers starting from 1 to 9 through the only loop on the console. The only question here is the meaning of (Object... args) in the above code.

Óscar López · Accepted Answer · 2011-11-14 20:45:07Z

6

The three-dot notation is the syntax for variable number of arguments, take a look here.

answered Nov 14, 2011 at 20:45

Óscar López

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Wayne · Accepted Answer · 2011-11-14 20:49:31Z

2

You're using Java's varargs notation, which allows the final argument to be passed as either an array or sequence of arguments (of indeterminate length). In your case, you're passing them as a sequence of args:

show(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9);

...but you could also pass them like this:

show(new int[] {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9});

Without support for this feature, you'd either have needed to accept an array in the method signature (and always passed the inputs in an array) or specified a fixed number of int arguments.

edited Nov 14, 2011 at 20:49

answered Nov 14, 2011 at 20:44

Wayne

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