What are the differences between length and length () in Java?\\n

In Java, both the length property and the length() method are used to determine the size of data, or we can say they help us to find the number of elements an object contains.

However, they are used with different Java objects. The length is an instance variable used for arrays, whereas length() is a method used with String objects.

In this article, we are going to discuss the difference between length and length() in Java.

The length Property

An array is an object that holds a fixed number of values of the same type. Its length variable is used to find the number of elements in that array. It is a final variable that is directly accessible through the array objects.

Example

The following example illustrates the use of length property:

public class ArrayLengthTest {
   public static void main(String args[]) {
      int array[] = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7};
      System.out.println("Length of an array is: " + array.length);
   }
}

On running the above Java program, you will get the following result:

Length of an array is: 7

The length() Method

The String class internally uses a char[] array that it does not expose to the outside world directly. Instead, it provides the length() method, which is used to return the number of characters in a string.

Example

In this example, we will see the use of length() method.

public class StringLengthMethodTest {
   public static void main(String args[]) {
      String str = "Welcome to Tutorials Point";
      System.out.println("Length of String using length() method is: " + str.length());
   }
}

When you run the above Java program, it will display the following output:

Length of String using length() method is: 26

Difference between length Property and length() Method

The table below compares and discusses the difference between length and length() in Java: