Casting of int[] to Object[]

[Sri Amb]

When i do something like

    

      static int call (Object a){

      }

      main(){
           call(10);
      }

it works because of autoboxing

But why didn't the language designers support something like this ?

    
           static int call (Object []a){ 
             } 
            
            main(){ 
                    int []a = new int[10]; 
                    call(a); 
            }

Why didn't they support something like this. Went through JLS but couldnt find what i wanted.

Thanks in advance for your time.

[Mark Uppeteer]

Why not use an Integer[] and pass that to the method ?
its not autoboxing but it will work.

[Adam Michalik]

That would be technically impossible. If you create an array as int[], the ints are stored directly in the array. If you create it as Object[] or Integer[], the references are stored in the array and the object elsewhere (on the heap). So suppose you had:

// Class A
private Object[] getArray() {
return new int[]{1, 2, 3, 4, 5}; // this is illegal, but let's suppose it's not
}

// Class B
private void aMethod() {
Object[] objects = getArray();
Object o = objects[1];
}

Now, the compiler, when it compiles class B does not know that the objects array is full of ints and threats it as if it was full of references. So when you try to access objects[1], it generates instructions to access an object via a reference. Auto(un)boxing happens at compile time, so there is no possibility to make an object from that int during runtime.

[Sri Amb]

That makes sense. Thank you Adam..