What is “String args[]”? parameter in main method Java

Question

I\'m just beginning to write programs in Java. What does the following Java code mean?

public static void main(String[] args)

• What

Answer 1

Even tho OP is only talking about the String[] args, i want to give a complete example of the public static void main(String[] args).

Public : is an Access Modifier, which defines who can access this Method. Public means that this Method will be accessible by any Class(If other Classes are able to access this Class.).

Static : is a keyword which identifies the class related thing. This means the given Method or variable is not instance related but Class related. It can be accessed without creating the instance of a Class.

Void : is used to define the Return Type of the Method. It defines what the method can return. Void means the Method will not return any value.

main: is the name of the Method. This Method name is searched by JVM as a starting point for an application with a particular signature only.

String[] args : is the parameter to the main Method.

If you look into JDK source code (jdk-src\j2se\src\share\bin\java.c):

/* Get the application's main method */
mainID = (*env)->GetStaticMethodID(env, mainClass, "main",
                   "([Ljava/lang/String;)V");
...
{    /* Make sure the main method is public */
...
mods = (*env)->CallIntMethod(env, obj, mid);
if ((mods & 1) == 0) { /* if (!Modifier.isPublic(mods)) ... */
    message = "Main method not public.";
    messageDest = JNI_TRUE;
    goto leave;
...

You can see that the starting method in java must be named main and must have the specific signature public static void main(String[] args)

The code also tells us that the public static void main(String[] args) is not fixed, if you change the code in (jdk-src\j2se\src\share\bin\java.c) to another signature, it will work but changing this will give you other possible problems because of the java specs

Offtopic: It's been 7 years since OP asked this question, my guess is that OP can answer his own question by now.