Difference Between Array, Arrays and ArrayList

Difference Between Array, Arrays and ArrayList

	Array	Arrays	ArrayList
Package		package java.util;	package java.util; List Interface
Defination	Array is part of core Java programming and has special syntax and semantics support in Java.	This class contains various methods for manipulating arrays (such as sorting and searching). This class also contains a static factory that allows arrays to be viewed as lists.	ArrayList is part of Collection framework along with other popular classes e.g. Vector, Hashtable, HashMap or LinkedList.
Syntax	int arr[]=new int();	Arrays.sort(arr)	ArrayList<String> list=new ArrayList<String>();
Size	Array is  fixed length data structure. Length of array cannot changed once it created.		ArrayList is a variable length Collection class. Resizing operation in ArrayList is slow down performance as it creates new Array and copying content from old Array to new Array.
Generics	Array doesn’t support the Generics, as Array instance knows about what kind of type it can hold and throws ArrayStoreException.		ArrayList allows you to use Generics to ensure type-safety.
MultiDimential	Array can be multi-dimensional.		Array list is single dimensional.
Wrapper	Array allows to store both primitives and Objects in Java.		ArrayList doesn’t allow to store primitives in ArrayList, it can only contain Objects.