String[] fruits = {"apple", "banana", "cherry"};
How do you tell how many items are in the fruits array?

Question

The answer is fruits.length;
Why is fruits.size(); not the answer?
Also, why are no parentheses present in the correct answer?

boog690 · Accepted Answer

I've always hated this about Java. For some odd reason, getting the length of an array is stringName.length() while getting the length of an array is arrayName.length.  It's an inconsistency that always kills me in Java but, just is.  It must be remembered, I guess.
If you check the Array documentation for Java 8 (http://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/util/Arrays.html), you'll see that size() isn't a method.  This is why it can't be used.
Java is an inconsistent language, in my opinion.  Others may argue otherwise.  It's just simply something that you, as a developer, must learn to live with.  Hope this helped!
As for your no parentheses question, parentheses are used to access a method.  When we use fruits.length, for example, we're actually accessing a PROPERTY of the array variable fruits and not using a METHOD of the array.  I think arrays SHOULD have a method length(), but, I've no say. LOL

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Michael McKenna

Michael McKenna

String[] fruits = {"apple", "banana", "cherry"}; How do you tell how many items are in the fruits array?

1 Answer

boog690

boog690