Why is String[] args required in Java?

Question

I understand that String[] args is an array of strings passed into main as parameters.

java Print "Hello, World!"

 

class Print {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    System.out.println(args[0]);
  }
}

However, when you don't include it as a parameter (even if you don't use), it throws an exception. So why is it required? Also, why can't it be an int[] or boolean[]?

Answer 1

It's a String because the command line is expressed in text. If you want to convert that text into integers or booleans, you have to do that yourself - how would the operating system or Java bootstrapper know exactly how you wanted everything to be parsed? I suppose Java could look for a main method with the same number of parameters as command line arguments, and then try to parse them using Integer.parseInt etc... but this would be pretty complicated, and would still be inadequate in many situations.

As for it being mandatory - basically the Java designers decided to stick to a single method signature, which is frankly simpler than allowing for it to be optional. It would be possible though - in C#, you can have any of

static void Main()
static void Main(string[] args)
static int Main()
static int Main(string[] args)

Ultimately it doesn't make a lot of difference, to be honest. There's no significant downside in having to include the parameter.

Answer 2

The Java runtime system looks specifically for a method with a single String[] type parameter, because it wants to pass the parameters to your main method. If such a method is not present, it informs you through an exception.

If you want to treat the (string) command line parameters as integers or booleans, you are expected to do the conversion yourself. This allows you to handle the condition where somebody enters "ponies" where you expect an integer.

Answer 3

That's how the language was designed. C and C++ both do it in a similar fashion, though with a separate count, information that's included in the string array for Java.

You could have designed it to take integers or booleans but that would have added more work to the Java runtime for potentially little benefit.

Strings can be used to transmit any sort of information into the main program (including integers and booleans). Not so for integers if you want to pass in a string (short of the user having to manually encode it as UTF-8 or something, not something that would endear people to the language).

Just remember to declare it. By all means, raise a change request on the language if you wish (to make it optional, or allow other signatures) but I suspect that will not get very far.