Declaration of an array of bytes

Question

I came across an array declaration that looks like this:

byte [] byteArray = StringFormatter.padWithSpacesTo("", 1000).getBytes();

After that line the following lines are used:

    putBytes(byteArray, name, 0);
    putBytes(byteArray, addressLine1, 100);

What is this array declaration doing?

This is the byte representation of 1000 spaces in platform default encoding. — Boris the Spider
– Boris the Spider, Commented Apr 23, 2015 at 12:36
As it is, the question is too broad. Which is the part that you don't understand? — Abhay
– Abhay, Commented Apr 23, 2015 at 12:42
My doubt was why do we need to create a byte array like this. We could have used **byte[] byteArray = new byte[1000];**Please see the next lines of code in the update section. — Leo
– Leo, Commented Apr 23, 2015 at 13:44

Tim B · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-23 12:41:33Z

4

It uses the StringFormatter to create a 1000 character string filled with spaces. It then uses getBytes() to return that as a byte array.

So it creates an array 1000 characters long, filled with ' ' in platform default encoding (so almost certainly 32).

This isn't really a very good way to do things...a better approach would be Arrays.fill

edited Apr 23, 2015 at 12:41

answered Apr 23, 2015 at 12:36

Tim B

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4 Comments

Leo Over a year ago

Can we use byte[] byteArray = new byte[1000]; instead of the above piece of code?

Tim B Over a year ago

@Leo Yes, that would be the correct way. Be aware though that the new array will be filled with 0 rather than 32. If you need the 32s then use Arrays.fill.

Leo Over a year ago

what do you mean by "0 rather than 32"? Is it the Ascii values? If yes then will there be any difference considering the following codes in the update section?

Tim B Over a year ago

@leo yes. Because unless you do the fill then everything you don't write to is going to be filled with 0, not with spaces.

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