As noted in the comments, Java arrays employ C-like zero-based indexes and so using an index of 0 obtains the first element. /** * Extract the first element from the provided List of Strings.

Without round brackets, you are invoking a method. The length property tells you the Java array size. It is not a method. To further confuse matters, the String class does have a length() method. The ...

New developers often confuse the Java array length property with the String class’ length() method. While their functions are similar, the syntax is different. The Java array length property does not ...