Why use parallel arrays in Java?

Question

Is there any real use case for parallel arrays in Java? It seems too cumbersome to maintain N arrays which are interrelated.

Example:

int  ages[]   =         


        

Answer 1

Classes are nicer, but if the use case is narrow, e.g. one method body, it's wasteful to create one. If you have a Pair class, you could specialize it for the purpose without creating a new class.