Odd, NetBeans claims that ... the Contains doesn't work since it just has one element; the int array. 2010-11-13T13:15:59.703Z+00:00 ... Nyerguds: indeed, this does not work for primitives. In java primitive types can't be generic.... More on stackoverflow.com

What I have done is a small utility class Array2D which encapsulates some basic methods such as exixts(...) etc. I posted this below. 2012-11-29T13:54:33.883Z+00:00 ... there is the class I mentioned in the comment we had with Sean Patrick Floyd : I did it with a peculiar use which needs WeakReference, but you can change it by any object with ease. ... import java... More on stackoverflow.com

Think of an array kind of like the cabinets in your kitchen, all in a line. Each cabinet has a specific location in your kitchen. If you were to tell someone where to find the cups when they're over at your house, you might say "They're in the cabinet over the stove, on the left". Your cabinets are used for storage of your dishes and other kitchen items, and they can be organized a certain way to make finding what you need easier. A one dimensional array is essentially a line of "cabinets" that you can store data in, where each cabinet has its own index, or location, that you reference it by. An array can be unsorted or sorted, and many algorithms exist to sort them, with some being fast, and some requiring very little extra memory. Something like .length or .size simply returns the amount of cabinets in your kitchen, or in programming terms, the number of spaces in your array. You can also make a two dimensional array, which you can think of like a grid of cubby holes at a pre-school, or more mathematically, as a matrix. These work exactly the same as a 1D array, but each element has two indexes instead of one, like an X and Y coordinate on graph paper. An array is stored linearly in memory and its indexes usually start at zero. The following example is how to create an array and fill it with numbers using Java. int[] myArray = new int[10]; //Creates an array of size 10 to store integers for(int i = 0; i < myArray.length; i++) { myArray[i] = i; } //myArray.length = 10, i = 0, loop until i > 9 //On each iteration, myArray at index i will contain the current value of i //When this loop finishes, myArray will contain 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 in that order Arrays are the simplest data structure you will be dealing with, but they are incredibly useful and have a huge amount of applications. Many complex data structures use arrays in some way. For example, you can represent a graph structure as a matrix, or two dimensional array, of connected edges. You can efficiently sort data without using any extra memory using a heap structure, which at its most basic form is just an array that can be sorted in place. Once you grasp arrays, you will be able to grasp the more complex structures much more easily. If there is anything else I can help you with, please let me know. More on reddit.com

Arrays are just a convenient way of storing multiple things. Think of arrays as sacks of balls - you could have just a single ball: int myBall = 42; Or five: int myBall1 = 42; int myBall2 = 43; int myBall3 = 44; int myBall4 = 45; int myBall5 = 46; But what if you want, say, a hundred balls? Things get out of hand rather quickly. Instead of having these loose balls lying around, we can have an array of balls: int[] balls1 = new int[100]; // Holds a hundred balls int[] balls2 = new int[5]; // Holds five balls But wait, there's more! Arrays work like lockers - each "slot" in an array has an index. The first one in an array is always at index 0, the second one at index 1 and so on. To populate the five-item array, we do this: int[] balls = new int[5]; balls[0] = 42; balls[1] = 43; balls[2] = 44; balls[3] = 45; balls[4] = 46; We can retrieve them just as well: int thirdBall = balls[2]; // Now thirdBall is 44 Why use arrays, then, if we can just declare as many variables as we need? Well, it makes life a lot easier. Say you want a hundred numbers and you want them to run from 1 to 100. You could do it like this: int num1 = 1; int num2 = 2; ... int num100 = 100; Or, you could do this: int[] nums = new int[100]; for(int i = 0; i < 100; ++i) nums[i] = i + 1; Now, after all this: what specifically you have trouble understanding? More on reddit.com