printing memory address instead of data in java

Question

so i'm trying to setup an array that holds x y coordinates. the program seems to work but my print results are memory addresses. here's my code:

static class Point{
    int x;
    int y;
    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return  x + " " + y;
    }
}

public static Object thePoints( int x, int y){
    Point[] mypoints = new Point[10];
    for (int i = 0; i < mypoints.length; i++){
       mypoints[i] = new Point();
    }   
    mypoints[0].x = 200;
    mypoints[0].y = 200;
    return mypoints;
}

public static void main(String args[]) {
    Object thing = thePoints(0,0);

    System.out.print(thing);
    }
}

input is appreciated.

Answer 1

You are printing out an array of type Point[] in your main() method, contrary to what it appears. A quick way to get around this problem is to use Arrays.toString(). Try changing the code in your main() method to this:

public static void main(String args[]){
    Object thing = thePoints(0,0);

    System.out.print(Arrays.toString((Point[])thing));
}

If you also refactor Point.toString() to the following, then you get some fairly nice looking output:

static class Point{
    int x, y;

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return  "(" + x + ", " + y + ")";    // print out a formatted ordered pair
    }
}

Output:

[(200, 200), (0, 0), (0, 0), (0, 0), (0, 0), (0, 0), (0, 0), (0, 0), (0, 0), (0, 0)]