Question

This is probably a question with a blindingly obvious answer. I just can’t see it, and will probably feel very small when someone points it out to me clearly.

I’m using Android at the Eclair MR1 level, so my Android Manifest has:

<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="7" />

In my MainActivity, I have a byte[] that I want to realloc to a larger size.

Java SE 6 has the java.util.Arrays class with static methods to do that for every elementary type. I can see that class documented in the android docs at http://developer.android.com/reference/java/util/Arrays.html#copyOf%28byte%5B%5D,%20int%29

Here’s my code:

    byte [] padToLength (byte[] plain) {

    try{
        byte[] plainpad2 = java.util.Arrays.copyOf(plain, plain.length+10);  //why won't this compile?
    } catch (Exception e) {

    }

But when I use that, I get a compilation error in Eclipse, saying “the method copyOf(byte[], int) is undefined for the type Arrays.

Can anyone suggest what I am doing wrong?

Answer 1

Arrays.copyOf(byte[], int) is not defined for API Level 7. At that link you provided, have a look in the top-right corner and you’ll see a checkbox that says “Filter By API Level”. Selecting 7 removes that method.

Why are you working with arrays anyway? In Java you should almost always use ArrayList unless you are experiencing performance problems. In that case, you don’t have to worry about the size of your array at all. If your function must accept a byte[] parameter, then I’d suggest invoking something like List<Byte> myList = Arrays.asList(plain).