What are variable length arguments?

What are variable length arguments?

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Variable length arguments are used to declare a method that takes a variable number of arguments. This is one of the features added in the J2SE 5 version. Varargs are declared using a data type followed by three periods (...). An example of variable length arguments is as follows:

public void amethod(int...i)

Here, i represents an array of integers.

A method with a normal parameter can be written along with a variable length argument, the condition being that the varargs parameter should be the last parameter in the method. The following will throw a compile-time exception:

int amethod(int...amethod, float f)

Instead, it should be written as follows:

int amethod(float f, int...amethod)

Moreover, two variable length arguments cannot be written in one method. The example given below is incorrect:

int amethod(int...i, double... j)

Like any other method, a method with a varargs parameter can also be overloaded. However, it should be used with proper caution, as it may sometimes create ambiguity. For example, in the following syntaxes int amethod(int i,int...j) and int amethod(int i), if the length of the varargs parameter is zero, the compiler will never know which version of amethod() is being called, as both will be equivalent to int amethod(int i).

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