Python Programming with the Java™ Class Libraries: A Tutorial for Building Web and Enterprise Applications with Jython

Java Arrays and jarray

The closest thing to a Java array in Python is a tuple. Remember that a tuple is immutable and a list is mutable. Like a list, a Java array is mutable but, like a tuple, it's of fixed length. You may think that a tuple or a list is a likely candidate for an array, but that's not exactly the case. You see, an array is like a homogeneous tuple or list—every item in it is of the same type; but a tuple is heterogeneous—items in it can be of different types. A lot of Java methods have Java arrays as arguments, so when you pass an array to a Java method, Python has to guarantee that it will be homogeneously typed.

Just a note: Because they're strongly typed, Java arrays can hold Java objects or primitive types.

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