Truncate an array without copying it?

Question

In Java, is there a way to truncate an array without having to make a copy of it? The common idiom is Arrays.copyOf(foo, n) (where the new array is n elements long). I don't think there is an alternative, but I'm curious as to whether there is a better approach.

Answer 1

An array's length in Java cannot be altered after initialization, so you're forced to make a copy with the new size. Actually, the length parameter of a Java array is declared as final, so it cannot be changed once it's set.

If you need to change an array's size, I'd use an ArrayList.