What does "L", "[" and ";" mean in smali code?

Question

I'm trying to get a deep understanding of smali language. I found a page talking about opcodes online, but it never talks about these special symbols, which is L, ; and [, e.g

invoke-static {v2, v3}, Ljava/lang/String;->format(Ljava/lang/String;[Ljava/lang/Object;)Ljava/lang/String;

So, what does these symbols mean here? e.g [Ljava/lang/Object; and Ljava/lang/String;

And I find it hard to locate the duplicated question when I asked about it. Since the former poster does java and I do RE — daisy, Sep 30 '13 at 15:48
This format for dex types is defined in the http://s.android.com/tech/dalvik/dex-format.html document. — JesusFreke, Sep 30 '13 at 17:17

Reimeus · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-30T17:05:09.307

8

[Ljava.lang.Object; is the String returned from Object#String for an Object array class, similarly for String

[ signifies an array

L signifies a class or interface

; is end of type

Class#getName

Element Type         Encoding
boolean              Z
byte                 B
char                 C
class or interface   Lclassname;
double               D
float                F
int                  I
long                 J
short                S

edited Sep 30 '13 at 17:05

answered Sep 30 '13 at 15:36

Reimeus

158,255
15
216
276

Thanks Reimeus, and what does two consecutive object mean? e.g `format(Ljava/lang/String;[Ljava/lang/Object;)` – daisy Sep 30 '13 at 15:46
It means you have 2 arrays – Reimeus Sep 30 '13 at 15:48
Oh I get it, there's no separator between two objects that pass in as arguments – daisy Sep 30 '13 at 15:48

What does "L", "[" and ";" mean in smali code?

1 Answers1