Question

Possible Duplicate:
java – Array brackets after variable name

When writing a Java function that accepts an array as a parameter, should the function definition have the brackets (“[]”) on the type or the variable name?

As in:

private int myFunction(int array[])
{
    //do stuff here
}

or…

private int myFunction(int[] array)
{
    //do stuff here
}

They both “work”, but is there a technical difference between the two?

Answer 1

There is no difference. But int[] array is considered idiomatic Java.

The logic is that [] is part of the type (an array is a distinct type from a scalar), and so int and [] should live together. It’s also consistent with the notation for e.g. return types:

int[] foo() {
    ...
    int[] x = new int[5];
    return x;
}