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up vote 2 down vote favorite

This question already has an answer here:

Sorry if this is already been answered but searching with [] doesn't help you a lot.

While writing in Java I started wondering whether there's any semantic difference between these declarations:

String[] strings

and

String string[]

Or it is different syntax for the same type.

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marked as duplicate by Pshemo, Reimeus, Luiggi Mendoza, Keppil, yshavit Mar 27 '13 at 22:28

This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.

2 Answers

up vote 3 down vote accepted

No difference between String string[] and String[] strings

String[] strings is much more readable.

String string[] is to make C programmers get familiar with Java :)

Another thing that's good (and very important) to know:

String[] strings1 , strings2;  //strings1 and strings2 are arrays of String
String strings1[] , strings2;  // strings1 is array, but strings2 is String
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up vote 2 down vote

It is the same in Java, but the first is more readable. Note that you can also have

String[][] strings

and

String[] strings[]

and

String strings[][]

And these are the same.

More info: Java Specification: Arrays.

From the Java Specification, you can even get very macabre with future readers of your code by having arrays like this (and if you do it in real world app you could get fired):

String[] strings, strings2[], strings3[][];

Which would be better written as

String[] strings;
String[][] strings2;
String[][][] strings3;
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