About Array Constants can only be used in initializers

[Ravi Kiran Va]

Hi

I am trying to sort a given array .

public class Task {

    public static int[] retainPositiveNumbers(int[] a) 
    
    {
    
    //	a = {1,2,3,4,-1,-9,10}; // Commented Line .
    	int b[] = {1,2,3,4,-1,-9,10};
    	
  Arrays.sort(b);
    	
    	return b;
    	
    }
}

I have commented out the line a above , because if i use the variable a , it is showing an compile time error as Array Constants can only be used in initializers

Please tell me why is it so .

[Ravi Kiran Va]

In a more simpler way :

 public static void sortmethod(String[] a) {
      
a = {"one","two"};
    
    }

why the above is not possible (The same error)

[David Newton]

Because what you're trying to do isn't an initializer.

If you said a = new String[] { ... } it would work (I think), but I'm not a fan of assigning parameters, as it can lead to poor thinking about what's actually happening.

[Rob Spoor]

Because with "a = {...}" it is not clear to the compiler what the type of "a" is. Consider:

Object[] a;
a = {"Hello", "World"}; // use String[] or Object[] ?

It could look at the declared type (so Object[]) but because it's still ambiguous the compiler disallows it.

Fixed the . vs , error inside my initializer...

[David Newton]

I like Rob's answer better ;)