Why this Precision Error

[sopal Pal]

Hi
I have this simple program

=====

public class Hello
{

public static void main(String[] args)
{
long size = 123456789l;
int arr[] = new int [size];
}
}
=====

Why does the compiler give the error

Hello.java:7: possible loss of precision
found : long
required: int
int arr[] = new int [size];
^

[Steve Simon Joseph Fernandez]

Hi,

I think it is because Java expects all array sizes to be int. Thus, it forces size to be converted to an int, and warns you of the loss in precision.

_steve.

[Ilja Preuss]

Originally posted by Steve Simon Joseph Fernandez:

I think it is because Java expects all array sizes to be int.

That would explain why it's saying "required: int, found: long"...

[sopal Pal]

Isn't it strange that array indices cannot exceed the int limit.
So if I need to have an array whose size is greater than int ( max ) my only alternative is to use linked list kind of things - right ?

[Steve Morrow]

Isn't it strange that array indices cannot exceed the int limit.

Not really "strange", per se. The language is specified that way.

So if I need to have an array whose size is greater than int ( max ) my only alternative is to use linked list kind of things - right ?

I'm unaware of any theoretical upper limit on the number of elements in a LinkedList. I would imagine that memory and performance constraints would typically be a problem long before you reached the 2 billion+ limit on an array-backed structure, though.

I'm sure they're out there, but I haven't had the "fortune" to work with an application that required an array approaching Integer.MAX_VALUE size...