Class ArrayUtil

java.lang.Object
org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.ArrayUtil

public class ArrayUtil
extends Object
This is a generated class used internally during the writing of bytecode within the CallSiteWriter logic. This is not a class exposed to users, as is the case with almost all classes in the org.codehaus.groovy packages.

The purpose is the reduction of the size of the bytecode. Consider creating a three element Object[] with null values:

  ANEWARRAY java/lang/Object    
  DUP
  ICONST_0
  ACONST_NULL
  AASTORE
  DUP
  ICONST_1
  ACONST_NULL
  AASTORE
  DUP
  ICONST_2
  ACONST_NULL
  AASTORE
 
with ArrayUtils you can have it like this:
  ACONST_NULL
  ACONST_NULL
  ACONST_NULL
  INVOKESTATIC ArrayUtils.createArray(Object,Object,Object)
 
The number of needed instructions is thus reduced from 15 to 4. For every entry we save 3 bytecode instructions. This allows better readable bytecode and it allows the JIT to see less bytecode to optimize, helping under the inlining threshold here or there.

So even though the class is ugly, there are good reason to have this in Groovy, even if the class makes absolutely no sense in normal Java. But it is not used in normal Java, but from the bytecode.