This class contains methods that allow you to set and query the values of array elements, to determine the length of an array, and to create new instances of arrays. Note that the Array class can manipulate only array values, not array types; Java data types, including array types, are represented by java.lang.Class. Since the Array class represents a Java value, unlike the Field, Method, and Constructor classes, which represent class members, the Array class is significantly different (despite some surface similarities) from those other classes in this package. Most notably, all the methods of Array are static and apply to all array values, not just a specific field, method, or constructor.

The get( ) method returns the value of the specified element of the specified array as an Object. If the array elements are of a primitive type, the value is converted to a wrapper object before being returned. You can also use getInt( ) and related methods to query array elements and return them as specific primitive types. The set( ) method and its primitive type variants perform the opposite operation. Also, the getLength( ) method returns the length of the array.

The newInstance( ) methods create new arrays. One version of this method is passed the number of elements in the array and the type of those elements. The other version of this method creates multidimensional arrays. Besides specifying the component type of the array, it is passed an array of numbers. The length of this array specifies the number of dimensions for the array to be created, and the values of each of the array elements specify the size of each dimension of the created array.

public final class Array {
// No Constructor
// Public Class Methods
     public static Object get(Object array, int index) 
throws IllegalArgumentException, ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException;     native
     public static boolean getBoolean(Object array, int index) 
throws IllegalArgumentException, ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException;     native
     public static byte getByte(Object array, int index) 
throws IllegalArgumentException, ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException;     native
     public static char getChar(Object array, int index) 
throws IllegalArgumentException, ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException;     native
     public static double getDouble(Object array, int index) 
throws IllegalArgumentException, ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException;     native
     public static float getFloat(Object array, int index)
throws IllegalArgumentException, ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException;     native
     public static int getInt(Object array, int index) 
throws IllegalArgumentException, ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException;     native
     public static int getLength(Object array) 
throws IllegalArgumentException;     native
     public static long getLong(Object array, int index) 
throws IllegalArgumentException, ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException;     native
     public static short getShort(Object array, int index) 
throws IllegalArgumentException, ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException;     native
     public static Object newInstance(Class<?> componentType, int length) 
throws NegativeArraySizeException;  
     public static Object newInstance(Class<?> componentType, int[ ] dimensions) 
throws IllegalArgumentException, NegativeArraySizeException;  
     public static void set(Object array, int index, Object value) 
throws IllegalArgumentException, ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException;     native
     public static void setBoolean(Object array, int index, boolean z) 
throws IllegalArgumentException, ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException;     native
     public static void setByte(Object array, int index, byte b) 
throws IllegalArgumentException, ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException;     native
     public static void setChar(Object array, int index, char c) 
throws IllegalArgumentException, ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException;     native
     public static void setDouble(Object array, int index, double d) 
throws IllegalArgumentException, ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException;     native
     public static void setFloat(Object array, int index, float f) 
throws IllegalArgumentException, ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException;     native
     public static void setInt(Object array, int index, int i) 
throws IllegalArgumentException, ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException;     native
     public static void setLong(Object array, int index, long l) 
throws IllegalArgumentException, ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException;     native
     public static void setShort(Object array, int index, short s) 
throws IllegalArgumentException, ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException;     native
}