Java: overloaded method resolution and varargs — confusing example

Question

Just when I thought I understood JLS15.12 as it applied to varargs, here\'s this example:

package com.example.test.reflect;

public class MethodResolutionTes         


        

Answer 1

In section 8.4.1:

If the last formal parameter is a variable arity parameter of type T, it is considered to define a formal parameter of type T[].

Since you're explicitly providing an array, this allows the second two calls to match the variable arity method in the first phase, without consideration of variable arity.

Answer 2

Vararg methods can be called with multiple parameters (a, b, c) or as an array ({a, b, c}). Because you are passing an array that matches the type of the varargs it takes precedence.

Reference: http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/third_edition/html/classes.html#8.4.1