Question

Why does this work while the other throws errors:

import java.util.*;

//This works fine
public class ArrayTest {
    public static String[] names = {"James", "John", "Mark"};
    public static void main( String args[] ){
        System.out.print("Names: " + Arrays.toString(names));
    }
}

//But why does this not?
public class ArrayTest {
    public static String[] names = new String[3];
    names[0] = "James";
    names[1] = "John";
    names[2] = "Mark";
    public static void main( String args[] ){
        System.out.print("Names: " + Arrays.toString(names));
    }
}

Answer 1

Enclose the array init inside static init block like follows:

static {
 names[0] = "James";     
 names[1] = "John";     
 names[2] = "Mark"; 
}