When we write main() methods for our programs, we use the parameter String[] args. Now that we know about array syntax, we can start to parse what this means.

A String[] is an array made up of Strings. Examples of String arrays:

String[] humans = {"Talesha", "Gareth", "Cassie", "Alex"};
String[] robots = {"R2D2", "Marvin", "Bender", "Ava"};

The args parameter is another example of a String array. In this case, the array args contains the arguments that we pass in from the terminal when we run the class file. (So far, args has been empty.)

So how can you pass arguments to main()? Let’s say we have this class HelloYou:

public class HelloYou {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    System.out.println("Hello " + args[0]);  
  }
}

When we run the file HelloYou in the terminal with an argument of "Laura":

java HelloYou Laura

We get the output:

Hello Laura

The String[] args would be interpreted as an array with one element, "Laura".

When we use args[0] in the main method, we can access that element like we did in HelloYou.