arrayCopy() / Reference / Processing.org

Name

arrayCopy()

Description

Copies an array (or part of an array) to another array. The src array is copied to the dst array, beginning at the position specified by srcPosition and into the position specified by dstPosition. The number of elements to copy is determined by length. Note that copying values overwrites existing values in the destination array. To append values instead of overwriting them, use concat().

The simplified version with only two arguments — arrayCopy(src, dst) — copies an entire array to another of the same size. It is equivalent to arrayCopy(src, 0, dst, 0, src.length).

Using this function is far more efficient for copying array data than iterating through a for() loop and copying each element individually. This function only copies references, which means that for most purposes it only copies one-dimensional arrays (a single set of brackets). If used with a two (or three or more) dimensional array, it will only copy the references at the first level, because a two-dimensional array is simply an "array of arrays". This does not produce an error, however, because this is often the desired behavior. Internally, this function calls Java's System.arraycopy() method, so most things that apply there are inherited.

Examples

String[] north = { "OH", "IN", "MI"};
String[] south = { "GA", "FL", "NC"};
arrayCopy(north, 1, south, 0, 2);
println(south);
// Prints updated array contents to the console:
// [0] "IN"
// [1] "MI"
// [2] "NC"

String[] north = { "OH", "IN", "MI" };
String[] south = { "GA", "FL", "NC" };
arrayCopy(north, south);
println(south);
// Prints updated array contents to the console:
// [0] "OH"
// [1] "IN"
// [2] "MI"

Syntax

arrayCopy(src, srcPosition, dst, dstPosition, length)
arrayCopy(src, dst, length)
arrayCopy(src, dst)

Parameters

src(Object)the source array
srcPosition(int)starting position in the source array
dst(Object)the destination array of the same data type as the source array
dstPosition(int)starting position in the destination array
length(int)number of array elements to be copied

Return

void

concat()

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