Arrays with trailing commas inside an array initializer in Java
Array initializers can be used to initialize arrays at compile-time. An initializer with trailing commas as shown below compiles fine.
int a[][] = {{1,2,} ,{3,4,} , {5,6,},}; //Trailing commas cause no compiler error
for(int i=0;i<a.length;i++)
{
for(int j=0;j<2;j++)
{
System.out.print(a[i][j]+"\t");
}
System.out.println();
}
Output :
1 2
3 4
5 6
Also legal with one dimension arrays as obvious with the above discussion.
int[] b = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,}; //A trailing comma causes no compiler error
for(int i=0;i<b.length;i++)
{
System.out.print(b[i]+"\t");
}
Output :
1 2 3 4 5 6
Even the following is a legal syntax and compiles fine.
int c[][] = {{,} ,{,} , {,},};
The compiler should expect a constant value (or another initializer) after and before a comma ,
. How is this compiled? Does the compiler simply ignore such commas or something else happens in such a scenario?
The trailing comma is ignored. From the Java specification:
A trailing comma may appear after the last expression in an array initializer and is ignored.