dot length in java - finding its definition

Question

In which class is the length field defined in Java (e.g. for array length)? Will I be able to see it defined say in Object class?

EDIT : Wh

Answer 1

Any class can have a field called length. Just add it.

Arrays do not have a length field; they have something which looks like such a field:

int[] a = new int[10];
System.out.println("array length is: " + a.length);

but it is not really a plain field, because this does not compile:

int[] a = new int[10];
a.length = 42;  // <- here the compiler gets grumpy

and, at the JVM level, the array length is accessed with a specific opcode (arraylength) and not the generic instance field access opcode (getfield).