Simplified Array Syntax

Sometimes, when working with Java 5/6, you still have to call methods from pre-Java 5 libraries. For instance, many of our DAOs are littered with code similar to this:

jdbcTemplate.query(sql,
    new Object[]{ customerId, customerName },
    new int[]{Types.INTEGER, Types.VARCHAR},
    ... );

I don’t like the new Object[] { ... }, So today I wrote a static method:

public static <T> T[] array(T... t) {
    return t;
}

And another for primitive ints:

public static int[] intArray(int... i) {
    return i;
}

Thus, I can now write the original code like this:

jdbcTemplate.query(sql,
    array(customerId, customerName),
    intArray(INTEGER, VARCHAR),
    ... );

I have to say that static imports and varargs are among my favorite Java 5 syntax features. Now if only I didn’t have to have special methods to handle arrays of primitives.

Posted on Friday, April 4th, 2008 at 6:03 pm in Java.