Question

For example, one might initialize a character array as:

char[] myArray = new char[3];
myArray = {'a', 'b', 'c'};

Or one might initialize the character array as:

char[] myArray = {'a','b', 'c'};

What is the benefit of using the “new” methodology ?

Incidentally, in the first example, why am I also allowed to assign the { … } set without passing it to a constructor method (in parenthesis)?

char[] myArray = new char[] {'a', 'b', 'c'};

Answer 1

{and} is a Short cut syntax and here the length of the array is determined by the number of values provided between { and }.

From Arrays Oracle docs

One way to create an array is with the new operator. The next statement in the ArrayDemo program allocates an array with enough memory for ten integer elements and assigns the array to the anArray variable.

// create an array of integers
anArray = new int[10];

Alternatively, you can use the shortcut syntax to create and initialize an array:

int[] anArray = { 
100, 200, 300,
400, 500, 600, 
700, 800, 900, 1000
};