Thread: Can an int array contain a short or byte?

I was asked the following True/False question on a test.

An array declared as an int can contain elements of different primitive types.
True or False?

I hated the question the moment I read it.

For some background, the textbook said the following:

"All values stored in an array have the same type (or are at least compatible)."

The textbook also said:

"A value stored in an array is sometimes called an array element...."

What do you think? Is it true or false?
"An array declared as an int can contain elements of different primitive types."


Is 00001111 "contained in" 0000000000001111 if the array is composed of the latter "type" of data?

Thank you.

I answered "True" and my answer was marked wrong. The "feedback" was:

"The type of the array is the type for each element."

I tried to argue my case, but the instructor just dogmatically asserted that an int array only contains ints.
I saw that the question could be viewed as both true or false.

Does anyone else think that the question should have been answered true? It was obvious to me that an int array couldn't contain a String, but not obvious that an int array couldn't contain a short or byte.

Thanks, Jim.

The most important question for me is the test question and whether it is actually a true or false question:

An array declared as an int can contain elements of different primitive types.
True or False?

Thanks again, Jim.

If this is false, "An array declared as an int can contain elements of different primitive types," then an array declared as an int CANNOT contain elements of type byte or short. Isn't that what that means? Bytes and shorts are different primitive types, are they not?

What starts to happen is that the definitions of the words uses become the battleground for what makes the question true or false, don't you agree? Is a byte a different primitive type from an int in the exact same way as a String? Is the phrase "different primitive type" going to mean one thing in one situation and another thing in another situation?

When a byte or short becomes an int, is not the byte or short still "contained" within the int?
Is 00001111 still "contained in" 0000000000001111, etc?

It seems impossible to teach that an int array CANNOT contain a byte or short. But, then again, is "contain" a word that makes the true/false statement ambiguous?

Just the fact that you have answered True and False to the same true/false question seems to indicate that there is ambiguity.

To be clear, the issue is definitely not whether anything other than a byte or short could be contained. I believe that I completely understand losing precision.

If the question is about the value, should it then refer to actual values, such as whether 2e^31 could be an int as opposed to one less than 2e^31?

I really do appreciate your responses, Jim. I can't thank you enough. If I haven't exhausted your patience, I'd like to share what my textbook taught and what the quiz question should really be taking into account. The following three quotations are what I was taught throughout the text (among other things, of course).

"There are eight primitive data types: four subsets of integers, two subsets of floating point numbers, a character data type, and a boolean data type."

"There are four integer data types (byte, short, int, and long)."

"All values stored in an array have the same type (or are at least compatible)."

___

Is there only one way to answer the true/false question if one has in mind the short and byte? Or would you say that there is ambiguity when thinking about bytes and shorts—about "compatible" types?
"An array declared as an int can contain elements of different primitive types. T/F?