Java main methods with "..." arrays? [duplicate]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
What is the ellipsis (…) for in this method signature?
java: how can i create a function that supports any number of parameters?

well i'm trying to figure out some examples and I found this kind of array definition for arguments in the main method. What's so special about this "..." and what's the difference between a normal String[] args?

Thanks

Answer 1

That's a notation from Java 5 for variable length argument lists. It is roughly equivalent to a String array, but lets you pass individual parameters that are combined into an array automatically.

void mymethod(String... a) {
    for (String s : a) {
        ...
    }
}

mymethod("quick", "brown", "fox");

This makes sense only when you plan to call a method from your program, so I do not see why it would be desirable to use this syntax for your main(). It will work, however.

Answer 2

The elipsis (...) are varargs. They are used when you want to create a method with any number of arguments. Oracle explains how varargs work in detail here.