Why does Java's String.getBytes() uses “ISO-8859-1”

Question

from java.lang.StringCoding :

String csn = (charsetName == null) ? \"ISO-8859-1\" : charsetName;

This is what is used from Java.lang.getByt

Answer 1

Elaborate on Skeet's answer (which is of course the correct one)

In java.lang.String's source getBytes() calls StringCoding.encode(char[] ca, int off, int len) which has on its first line :

String csn = Charset.defaultCharset().name();

Then (not immediately but absolutely) it calls static byte[] StringEncoder.encode(String charsetName, char[] ca, int off, int len) where the line you quoted comes from - passing as the charsetName the csn - so in this line the charsetName will be the default charset if one exists.