How do you write a toString() method for an int array for object oriented programming?

How do you write an toString() method for an int array? Say to return the string representation of a 52 card pack?

Here is an example array as part of a class:

{
    int[] cards = new int[52];

    public void Deck()
    {
        // Setting up array
        String[] suits = {"SPADES", "CLUBS", "HEARTS", "DIAMONDS"};
        String[] ranks = {"TWO", "THREE", "FOUR", "FIVE", "SIX", "SEVEN", 
            "EIGHT", "NINE", "TEN", "JACK", "QUEEN", "KING", "ACE"};
        {
            // Initalising array
            for (int i = 0; i < cards.length; i++)
            {
                cards[i] = i;
            }
        }
    }

This is being done in an object oriented manner. How would a toString() method be written in this case in order to return a string representation of the pack of cards or in this case, the array?

I have currently used:

@Overide
public String toString()
{
    return getClass().getName() + "[cards[]= " + cards[] + "]";
}

I have also used a similar toString() method written as:

return getClass().getName() + "[suits[]= " + suits[] + "ranks[]= " + ranks[] + "]";

It’s the same kind of toString() method I have used for other values and it normally works. Though now I get this error for both (or at least, the first one):

cannot find symbol
symbol: Class cards //which I dont have other than the array at the top
location: Class Pack // The class the array is currently in

unexpected type
required: value
found: class

'.class.' expected

As for printing it, I want it either formatted as a list, or a grid.

Answer

If you want to do it more OOPish, you should create a new class Card.

The Card class will have to fields suit, and rank (the type could be an enum here).
Make sure Card overwrites toString(), and make sure your array in Deck is Card[] (and NOT int[]).

Now you can easily implement toString() by invoking Arrays.toString(), which will in its turn invoke the toString() of each Card object, resulting in the required representation of your deck.

---

As for your code (which was added later):

return getClass().getName() + "[cards[]= " + cards[] + "]";

Will not compile because cards[] is not a value – cards is, but it will not get you what you want. Array’s toString() does NOT produce the content of the array, and you should use Arrays.toString(cards).

However, I suggest redesigning the code as described at the head of this answer.