Special Effects and Game Development in Java(TM) - Arrays

by Anibal Wainstein

4.0.3 Arrays

Now we have come to the point where we cannot work without arrays no longer. An array is a group of variables that are all of the same type. You can compare arrays with a cabinet and its drawers. Imagine that you have a drawer that represents a variable, the drawer is part of a cabinet together with other identical drawers. The cabinet that contains the drawer is then the array. A variable in an array is called element. When you initialize an array you must always specify how many variables it will contain. This is done with the new keyword. You can also specify the number of dimensions an array will have, but we will not review that here. Imagine now that we want to create an array with 5 integer numbers, then first we declare an array of integers:

int myarray[];

The two brackets [] are used to indicate that the variable "myarray" is an array. Now we must initialize the array and specify how many elements it will contain:

myarray = new int[5];

The array "myarray" now contains 5 integers, you can access them by writing:

int firstelement=myarray[0];
int secondelement=myarray[1];
int thirdelement=myarray[2];
int fourthelement=myarray[3];
int lastelement=myarray[4];

The number within the brackets is pointing on the first element in the array and it is called an index. Please note that arrays are always zero based, which means that the first element is accessed by specifying zero (and not 1 as one may think). In the example above we access the last integer by writing a 4. So 4 is the maximum for the index number even though the size of the array is 5. You can also initialize and declare the size for an array in a single line:

int myarray[] = new int[5];

You may now think that you know everything you need to know about arrays? Not yet... Please note that what we have declared so far have not had classes as elements. Now we will look at the process of creating arrays of classes. Assume that we want to create an array of 30 String objects:

String mystrings[] = new String[30];

It looks the same as the example above but "int" has been exchanged for "String" instead! Yes, of course! But this does not mean that we are finished yet. What you have managed to create are just an array with references. Now you must initialize each unique array element:

mystrings[0]=new String("String 0");
mystrings[1]=new String("String 1");
mystrings[2]=new String("String 2");
...
mystrings[29]=new String("String 29");

It looks worksome, right? Well, you get used to it! Sometimes you can find smart ways to make this element initializing automatic. The example above can be written like this instead:

String mystrings[]=new String[30];
for (int i=0; i<30; i++)
{
    mystrings[i]=new String("String "+i);
} 

Please note that if you try to add an integer, float or double to a String then the number will be automatically converted to a String object before being added. I have used this trick above in the initialization of the string ("String " + i). A great relief is that arrays with integers and floating point numbers always have the value zero, at the beginning, so these do not have to be initialized if you happen to depend on that.

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