[Solved] int cannot be converted to int[]

In this post I will be sharing how to fix incompatible types: int cannot be converted to int[] error. This error occurs at compile-time. As always, first, we will produce the error incompatible types: int cannot be converted to int[] error, before moving on to the solution.

Read Also: int to Integer in Java

[Fixed] incompatible types: int cannot be converted to int[] error

Example 1: Producing the error by assigning an int to a variable whose type is int[]

We can easily produce this error by assigning an int to a variable whose type is int[] as shown below:

public class IntCanNotBeConvertedToIntArray {
  static int[] array;
  static int count;

  public static void printArray(int size) {
      
      array = size;
      count = size;
      for (int i=0; i<count ; i++) {
          array[i] = i;
          System.out.print(array[i]+" ");
      }
  } 
  
  public static void main(String args[]) {
      printArray(13);
  }
}

Output:
IntCanNotBeConvertedToIntArray.java:7: error: incompatible types: int cannot be converted to int[]
            array = size;
                         ^
1 error

Explanation:

The cause of this error is by assigning an int to a variable whose type is int[]. In the above code, we need to initialize the array variable to an array, not to an integer. We can use a new keyword to initialize the array.

Solution:

In Java, we need to initialize the array variable not to an integer but an array. We can use the new keyword to solve this issue as shown below:

public class IntCanNotBeConvertedToIntArray {
  static int[] array;
  static int count;

  public static void printArray(int size) {
      
      array = new int[size];
      count = size;
      for (int i=0; i<count ; i++) {
          array[i] = i;
          System.out.print(array[i]+" ");
      }
  } 
  
  public static void main(String args[]) {
      printArray(13);
  }
}

Output:
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Example 2: Producing the error by returning an int instead of int[] in the method

We can easily produce this error by returning an int instead of int[] as shown below:

public class IntCanNotBeConvertedToIntArray2 {
  static int[] array;

  public static int[] displayArray(int size) {
      array = new int[size];
      for (int i=0; i < size ; i++) {
          System.out.print(array[i]+" ");
      }    
      return size;
  } 
  
  public static void main(String args[]) {
      displayArray(3);
  }
}

Output:
IntCanNotBeConvertedToIntArray2.java:9: error: incompatible types: int cannot be converted to int[]
            return size;
                        ^
1 error

Explanation:

The cause of this error is by returning an int instead of int[] in the displayArray method.

Solution:

In the displayArray method, we need to return an int[] instead of int. Just replace size which is an int with an int[] array in the return type of the displayArray method as shown below:

public class IntCanNotBeConvertedToIntArray2 {
  static int[] array;

  public static int[] displayArray(int size) {
      array = new int[size];
      for (int i=0; i < size ; i++) {
          System.out.print(array[i]+" ");
      }     
      return array;
  } 
  
  public static void main(String args[]) {
      displayArray(3);
  }
}

Output:
0 0 0

That's all for today. Please mention in the comments in case you are still facing the error incompatible types: int cannot be converted to int[] in Java.