Question

While declaring array we can use brackets any side of the identifier but in the case:

int[] k,i;

and

int k[],i;

It will be considered in two different ways. That is first one creates two arrays k and i.
that second one creates an array k and a normal variable i. What is this behavior?

EDIT: in java usually we prefer first type of declaration. but in this case we cant create an array and a primitive variable in the single statement.

Answer 1

My guess is the following:

The declaration int[] k is more logical, because it declares k to be an array of int. Therefore, it is the preferred (?) style in Java.

int k[], on the other hand, was the C way of declaring this array (K&R had a different philosophy when it came to declaration syntax – they wanted declarations to mimic access to the variable) and to ease the transition for C programmers, this syntax was also allowed – no harm done.

Now, in your above statement you have chained two declarations. In the first case, both variables are declared with the same type – which is clearly int[]. However, in the second code this behaviour would be counter-intuitive (and also different from C’s behaviour), and therefore has other semantics.

Keep in mind that this is purely a guess.