Question

I’m just picking up java. I tried something but it won’t compile:

int[] arr = methodThatReturnsIntArray();

But this one works:

int[] arr = null;
arr = methodThatReturnsIntArray();

Why is it so? Isn’t that array variables are just references (or pointers)?
Many thanks!

Answer 1

Both of them are correct and should not give compilation error provided that the methodThatReturnsIntArray() is returning a valid integer array

for example:

int[] methodThatReturnsIntArray(){
    return new int[2];
}