Why toString() method works differently between Array and ArrayList object in Java

Question

    String[] array = {\"a\",\"c\",\"b\"};
    ArrayList list = new ArrayList();
    list.add(\"a\");
    list.add(\"b\");
    list.add(\"         


        

Answer 1

Because when you print toString(), it will by default print className@HashCode.

So, when you print array then above will be printed.

But ArrayList is extened by AbstractCollection class and where the toString() method is overriden as below

 public String toString() {
        Iterator it = iterator();
        if (! it.hasNext())
            return "[]";

        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
        sb.append('[');
        for (;;) {
            E e = it.next();
            sb.append(e == this ? "(this Collection)" : e);
            if (! it.hasNext())
                return sb.append(']').toString();
            sb.append(',').append(' ');
        }
    }

which prints the readable format of the ArrayList object.