Java Arrays: Contiguous Memory Explained

The basic principle of Java arrays is to use contiguous memory space to store data of the same type. Arrays are treated as objects in memory, containing a contiguous memory block for storing data. The index of an array starts at 0, allowing direct access to elements by their index.

In an array, the elements must have the same type and occupy the same amount of space in memory. When creating an array, Java allocates a continuous block of memory in order to store the elements. The size of this memory space is equal to the size of each element multiplied by the length of the array.

When accessing elements in an array, the index allows us to calculate the position of the element in memory. Java uses index-based access, which means that the memory address of an element can be directly calculated and any element in the array can be accessed in constant time.

Because arrays are stored contiguously in memory, when inserting or deleting elements, other elements need to be moved to maintain the contiguity of the array. This is a drawback of arrays, as the time complexity of insertions and deletions is O(n), where n is the length of the array. Therefore, if frequent insertions and deletions are required, it may be necessary to consider using other data structures, such as linked lists.