We can also create empty arrays and then fill the items one by one. Empty arrays have to be initialized with a fixed size:

String[] menuItems = new String[5];

Once you declare this size, it cannot be changed! This array will always be of size 5.

After declaring and initializing, we can set each index of the array to be a different item:

menuItems[0] = "Veggie hot dog";
menuItems[1] = "Potato salad";
menuItems[2] = "Cornbread";
menuItems[3] = "Roasted broccoli";
menuItems[4] = "Coffee ice cream";

This group of commands has the same effect as assigning the entire array at once:

String[] menuItems = {"Veggie hot dog", "Potato salad", "Cornbread", "Roasted broccoli", "Coffee ice cream"};

We can also change an item after it has been assigned! Let’s say this restaurant is changing its broccoli dish to a cauliflower one:

menuItems[3] = "Baked cauliflower";

Now, the array looks like:

["Veggie hot dog", "Potato salad", "Cornbread", "Baked cauliflower", "Coffee ice cream"]

Keep Reading: AP Computer Science A Students

When we use new to create an empty array, each element of the array is initialized with a specific value depending on what type the element is:

For example, consider the following arrays:

String[] my_names = new String[5];
int[] my_ages = new int[5];

Because a String is a reference to an Object, my_names will contain five nulls. my_ages will contain five 0s to begin with.