Array Assignment

[R Kumar]

hi all. I came across the following code in one of the mock tests

public class Testing123 {

public static void main(String... args)
{
Number[]na = new Integer[3];
System.out.println(na[0]);
}
}

a)0
b)some garbage
c)3
d)compilation fails

the correct answer is supoosed to be compilation fails but when i tried this code it simply works fine and prints null..

could anyone tell wots wrong?

[B Misra]

Hi,

As far as i know this looks completely fine & should print null.(I'm new here though & this is my first post )

When the array of objects is constructed the individual elements get default null.
[ July 27, 2007: Message edited by: B Misra ]

[James Hambrick]

I don't see anything wrong with it either, the public static void main(String... args) looks a little funny having the ....

What version of JDK are you using. The exam is for 1.4 and if you are using 1.5 then some example may work when they are not supposed to. I heard on here somewhere to make sure and use the version JDK that you are testing for.

[B Misra]

The question should be of some scjp5 exam itself, cause otherwise the var-arg declaration would not have been there & even if the main declaration have been wrong (it is right here) it would not have had produced any compilation error.

[Remko Strating]

You're just right it will print null.

Normally the System.out.println(object) will print the value object.toString() which will go wrong because there is no object. It's a null-reference.

but when the value of the reference is null the method will just print null.

You will get an error if you change the code like this.

   
public class Test {
 
public static void main(String... args)
{
Number[]na = new Integer[3];
System.out.println(na[0].toString());
}
}
 

[Jesper de Jong]

Note that with Remko's change (adding toString()) you will not get a compiler error; a NullPointerException will be thrown at runtime because you are trying to call a method on a null reference.

[R Kumar]

Thanks all. This question is from the John Meyer's mock exam for scjp5. I guess there is some mistake in the question itself because the null option has not even been specified