Delegating method calls using variable number of arguments

Question

This question came up in the course of my work programming; it's become irrelevant to the current task, but I'm still curious if anyone has an answer.

In Java 1.5 and up you can have a method signature using a variable number of arguments, with an ellipsis syntax:

public void run(Foo... foos) {
  if (foos != null) {
   for (Foo foo: foos) { //converted from array notation using autoboxing
    foo.bar();
   }
  }
}

Suppose I want to do some operation on each foo in the foos list, and then delegate this call to some field on my object, preserving the same API. How can I do it? What I want is this:

public void run(Foo... foos) {
  MyFoo[] myFoos = null;
  if (foos != null) {
   myFoos = new MyFoo[foos.length];
   for (int i = 0; i < foos.length; i++) {
    myFoos[i] = wrap(foos[i]);
   }
  }
  run(myFoos);
}

public void run(MyFoo... myFoos) {
  if (myFoos!= null) {
   for (MyFoo myFoo: myFoos) { //converted from array notation using autoboxing
    myFoo.bar();
   }
  }
}

This doesn't compile. How can I accomplish this (passing a variable number of MyFoo's to the run(MyFoo...) method)?

Answer 1

use java reflections.

Answer 2

Is this what you want?

public class VarArgsTest {

    public static class Foo {}

    public static class MyFoo extends Foo {
        public MyFoo(Foo foo) {}
    }

    public static void func(Foo... foos) {
        MyFoo [] myfoos = new MyFoo[foos.length];
        int i=0;
        for (Foo foo : foos) {
            myfoos[i++] = new MyFoo(foo);
        }
        func(myfoos);
    }

    public static void func(MyFoo... myfoos) {
        for (MyFoo m : myfoos) {
            System.out.println(m);
        }
    }

    public static void main(String [] args) throws Exception {
        func(new Foo(), new Foo(), new Foo());
    }

}

Answer 3

This doesn't answer your question; it's incidental, but you don't need the null test. Here's proof:

public class VarargsTest extends TestCase {

    public void testVarargs() throws Exception {
        assertEquals(0, fn());
    }

    private int fn(String...strings) {
        return strings.length;
    }
}

If the method is called without any arguments, the varargs list is an empty array, not null.

I think the actual solution to your question would be to rename the second function.

Answer 4

I tried it and did NOT get a compile error. What is the actual error you are seeing? Here is the code I used. Perhaps i did something different:

public class MultipleArgs {
public static void main(String [] args){
    run(new Foo("foo1"), new Foo("foo2"), new Foo("foo3"));
}
public static void run(Foo... foos){
    MyFoo[] myFoos = null;
    if (foos != null) {
    myFoos = new MyFoo[foos.length];
       for (int i = 0; i < foos.length; i++) {
        myFoos[i] = wrap(foos[i]);
       }
      }
      run(myFoos);
}
public static void run(MyFoo... myFoos){
     if (myFoos!= null) {
           for (MyFoo myFoo: myFoos) {
            myFoo.bar();
           }
          }

}
private static class Foo {
    public final String s;
    public Foo(String s){
        this.s = s;
    }
    @Override
    public String toString(){
        return s;
    }
}
private static class MyFoo{
    private final String s;
    public MyFoo(String s){
        this.s = s;
    }
    public void bar(){
        System.out.println(s);
    }
    @Override
    public String toString(){
        return s;
    }
}
private static MyFoo wrap(Foo foo){
    return new MyFoo(foo.s); 
}

}