Why is an array not assignable to Iterable?

Arrays can implement interfaces (Cloneable and java.io.Serializable). So why not Iterable? I guess Iterable forces adding an iterator method, and arrays don't implement methods. char[] doesn't even override toString. Anyway, arrays of references should be considered less than ideal - use Lists. As dfa comments, Arrays.asList will do the conversion for you, explicitly.

(Having said that, you can call clone on arrays.)

The array is an Object, but its items might not be. The array might hold a primitive type like int, which Iterable can't cope with. At least that's what I reckon.