Why is it not Allowed in Java to Overload Foo(Object…) with Foo(Object[])?

 This is from Why is it not allowed in Java to overload Foo(Object…) with Foo(Object[])?

Question

I was wondering why it is not allowed in Java to overload Foo(Object[] args) with Foo(Object... args), though they are used in a different way?

Foo(Object[] args){}

is used like:

Foo(newObject[]{newObject(),newObject()});
while the other form:

Foo(Object... args){}
is used like:

Foo(newObject(),newObject());
Is there any reason behind this?

Answer

This 15.12.2.5 Choosing the Most Specific Method talk about this, but its quite complex. e.g. Choosing between Foo(Number... ints) and Foo(Integer... ints)
In the interests of backward compatibility, these are effectively the same thing.

publicFoo(Object... args){}// syntactic sugar for Foo(Object[] args){}// calls the varargs method.Foo(newObject[]{newObject(),newObject()});

e.g. you can define main() as

publicstaticvoid main(String... args){  
A way to make them different is to take one argument before the varargs

publicFoo(Object o,Object... os){}publicFoo(Object[] os){}Foo(newObject(),newObject());// calls the first.Foo(newObject[]{newObject(),newObject()});// calls the second.

 
They are not exactly the same. The subtle difference is that while you can pass an array to a varargs, you can't treat an array parameter as a varargs.

publicFoo(Object... os){}publicBar(Object[] os){}Foo(newObject[]{newObject(),newObject()});// compiles fine.Bar(newObject(),newObject());// Fails to compile.

Additionally, a varags must be the last parameter.

publicFoo(Object... os,int i){}// fails to compile.publicBar(Object[] os,int i){}// compiles ok.