what is the point of heterogenous arrays?

Question

I know that more-dynamic-than-Java languages, like Python and Ruby, often allow you to place objects of mixed types in arrays, like so:

[\"hello\", 120, [\"w         


        

Answer 1

There is nothing to stop you having a heterogeneous array in Java. It is considered poor programming style and using proper POJOs will be faster/more efficient than heterogeneous arrays in Java or any other language as the types of the "fields" are statically known and primitives can be used.

In Java you can

Object[][] array = {{"John Smith", 000}, {"Smith John", 001}, ...};

Answer 2

Eterogenous lists are very useful. For instance, to make the game of snake, I can have a list of blocks like this: [[x, y, 'down'], [x1, y1, 'down']] instead of a class for the blocks, and I can access faster to every element.