Access Individual Elements

Given an array, you can access any of its elements by index.

You write the name of a variable containing an array, [, a number, and then a ].

The first element can be accessed by using 0, the second by using 1, and so on.

String[] lyrics = { "you", "say", "goodbye" };

String you = lyrics[0];
System.out.println(you);

String say = lyrics[1];
System.out.println(say);

String goodbye = lyrics[2];
System.out.println(goodbye);

The index of the element can also come from a variable.

int index = 2;
String[] lyrics = { "I", "say", "hello" };

System.out.println(lyrics[index]);

If you give a number equal to or greater than the length of the array or a number less than zero, you will get an error.

String[] lyrics = { "I", "say", "hi" };
// Crash!
lyrics[999];

String[] lyrics = { "you", "say", "low" };
// Crash!
lyrics[-1];