Why a negative array size is not a compilation error, but raises a java.lang.NegativeArraySizeException

Question

java does not allow to initialize an array with a negative size. For instance:

int[] arr = new int[-1];

If this is already known, why does it throw NegativeArraySizeExceptioninstead of a compilation error? It's just curious to know why Java decides that it will be run at run time, while at compile time it is known that it will fail.

Answer 1

This check can be performed at compile time only in situations where the size is specified as a constant expression. However, the Java Language Specification requires that this check be performed at runtime:

15.10.2

:

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