In Java, why is the Arrays class plural?

Question

In Java, you import HashMap; and import ArrayList; etc. So why import Arrays; plural?

Answer 1

Utility classes that deal with Arrays , Files , Paths , Objects or Collections are plural. Precisely because they are not an array or collection, but represent a series of useful functions for working on them. You can even see that in the Javadoc intro:

This class contains various array management methods.

Some of these classes are fairly new additions to 1.7. Thus, this explains their general naming convention. I am not sure if there are written agreements for this, but it is certainly practical.

Answer 2

Because it is a set of utilities for working with arrays. The other examples you mentioned are actually instances of a particular type of collection.

For example, Guava maintained the same naming convention for lists, sets, maps, etc.

Answer 3

This is a collection of utilities that deals with arrays and is not an array. There is also another class called Array . Check out https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/lang/reflect/Array.html

Answer 4

This is for transforming author and code, how to name classes.

Answer 5

HashMap, ArrayList, etc. are objects. They are data structures that offer different functions and have different uses.

Arrays (or Collections ), on the other hand, is not an object. Arrays are a class that contains only static utilities that can perform convenient operations on arrays.