Java. Instance variable length

Question

Possible Duplicates:
Does Java have a limit on the class name length?
Max name length of variable or method in Java
Java.Variable name length.

i stupid, i know, sorry...

i created this question Java.Variable name length, but here very bad example... so, i try create new question, i have this class:

class Test
{
int i=10;

public static void main(String args[])
{
System.out.println(new Test());
}}

where variable name is not 'i' but 'iiiiiii....' with length 65535 chars(iiiiiiiiii...)

.class file have the same size that .java file. Compile - success.

but, when i>65535chars - Exception: UTF8 representation for string "iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii..." is too long for the constant pool

bingo!

What conclusion can we do?

unlimited-length - not 100% correct.

But i find some information that its problem not java language - its some problems with classfile, so somebody know: Whose problem?

I think he meant, that the variable name is not 'i' but 'iiiiiii....' with length 65535 chars. — Vladimir Ivanov, Dec 05 '10 at 17:55
So what is the question? Why do you think that the length of variable names is unlimited? — khachik, Dec 05 '10 at 18:02
because, i read docs: An identifier is an unlimited-length sequence of Java letters and Java digits — user471011, Dec 05 '10 at 18:06

score 7 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:55

It appears that this question has been asked at least a couple of times ("Max name length of variable or method in Java", "Does Java have a limit on the class name length?").

The best answer seems to be that while the Java Language Specification does not place a limit on constant, class or variable names, the Java Virtual Machine Specification (specifically, the classfile format) imposes a limit of 65535 characters. See section 4.10 of the JVM Specification, last bullet item.

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 05 '10 at 18:07

2

Ok. We can't name variables with more than 65534 chars. But who cares?

answered Dec 05 '10 at 18:07

Stan Kurilin

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Well, sure, *you* can use comments, but *my* code documents itself... and everything else. – Reese Moore Dec 05 '10 at 18:10
@Reese Moore, you need more than 65535 chars per variable name? – Stan Kurilin Dec 05 '10 at 18:12
Sarcasm, it was a joke about how long 'self documenting' code can be sometimes (at which point it is less intelligible than if a good old comment were used). – Reese Moore Dec 05 '10 at 18:16
@Reese Moore, Oh.. I see. In this case, it's good one) – Stan Kurilin Dec 05 '10 at 18:19

Java. Instance variable length

2 Answers2