Head First Servlets and JSP, 2nd Edition

A String index is coerced to an int for arrays and Lists

The EL for accessing an array is the same as the EL for accessing a List.

Remember folks, this is NOT Java. In EL, the [ ] operator is NOT the array access operator. No, it’s just called the [ ] operator. (We swear, look it up in the spec—it has no name! Just the symbol [ ]. Like Prince, kind of.) If it DID have a name, it would be the array/List/Map/bean Property access operator.

In a Servlet

java.util.ArrayList favoriteFood = new java.util.ArrayList();
favoriteFood.add("chai ice cream");
favoriteFood.add("fajitas");
favoriteFood.add("thai pizza");
favoriteFood.add("anything in dark chocolate");
request.setAttribute("favoriteFood", favoriteFood);

In a JSP

If the thing to the left of the bracket is an array or a List, and the index is a String literal, the index is coerced to an int.

This would NOT work: ${favoriteFood["one"]}

Because “one” can’t be turned into an int. You’ll get an error if the index can’t be coerced.