Why does List.toString and Vector.toString return a nice representation but not Array.toString?

Question

scala> Array(1, 2, 3).toString
res1: String = [I@11cf437c

scala> List(1, 2, 3).toString
res2: String = List(1, 2, 3)

scala> Vector(1, 2, 3).toString
res3: String = Vector(1, 2, 3)

Logically, one would expect Array(1, 2, 3).toString to return "Array(1, 2, 3)".

Update: seems to me like Array maps to the built in Java array type—is this correct? and if yes, is this the reason Array.toString has to behave like this?

Answer 1

It is because Array is a Java object. You can however use runtime.ScalaRunTime.stringOf if it suits your needs.

scala> runtime.ScalaRunTime.stringOf(Array(1, 2, 3))
res3: String = Array(1, 2, 3)