What do 3 dots next to a parameter type mean in Java?

Question

What do the 3 dots following String in the following method mean?

public void myMethod(String... strings){
    // method body
}

Answer 1

This is the Java way to pass varargs (variable number arguments).

If you are familiar with C, this is similar to the ... syntax used it the printf function:

int printf(const char * format, ...);

but in a type safe fashion: every argument has to comply with the specified type (in your sample, they should be all String).

This is a simple sample of how you can use varargs:

class VarargSample {

   public static void PrintMultipleStrings(String... strings) {
      for( String s : strings ) {
          System.out.println(s);
      }
   }

   public static void main(String[] args) {
      PrintMultipleStrings("Hello", "world");
   }
}

The ... argument is actually an array, so you could pass a String[] as the parameter.