Is the array a primitive or an object?

In Java, arrays are objects.

Here are the main reasons:

• They inherit from Object: All arrays implicitly inherit from the Object class and have access to its methods, such as clone(), equals(), hashCode(), toString().
• Created with new: Arrays are created using the new keyword, like other objects.

  // Creating an array of integers
  int[] numbers = new int[10];
  

• Have a length field: Arrays have a public, final length field that stores the size of the array. Primitive types do not have such fields.

  // Accessing the size of the array
  int size = numbers.length;
  

• Located on the heap: Arrays, like objects, are located on the heap. Primitives are stored on the stack (except when they are fields of objects).

Although array elements can be primitives, the container itself — the array — is an object.