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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-13T02:36:38+00:00

Why is length a data field in when we talk about arrays and length()

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Why is length a data field in when we talk about arrays and length() when we talk about String in Java? Means:

int a[10] = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10};
String str = "foo";
int a_len = a.length;
int str_len = str.length();

Why is length not a function in case of arrays or vice versa?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Simply: that’s just the way it is, and the way it’s always been.

    It’s specified in JLS section 10.7 that arrays have a public final length field. It could have been specified as a method instead, for consistency – but it just wasn’t… equally String could have made an implementation decision to have a public final length field – but again, it happens not to be that way.

    There are a few bits of inconsistency which have survived since 1.0 – obviously these things really can’t be changed after release…

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