trouble initialize List<Object[]> Using Arrays.asList

When you pass an array of reference types to Arrays.asList you get a List of that reference type.

Therefore Arrays.asList(new Object[]{"bar", 286}) returns a List<Object>, not a List<Object[]>.

Remember that ... is just syntactic sugar for an array parameter. You can call a method with a variadic parameter foo(Object...) either using

foo("hello", 1);

or

foo(new Object[]{"hello", 1});

since the compiler constructs the second form anyway.

Because the receiver type isn't considered when the compiler infers types, it looks at Arrays.asList(new Object[]{"bar", 286}) and thinks that you mean to create a list of Object, not a singleton list of Object[].

The easiest way with your existing syntax is just to add an explicit type parameter:

List<Object[]> bar = Arrays.<Object[]>asList(new Object[]{"bar", 286});

Adding the <Object[]> tells the compiler what T should be.

Or, if you don't need the list to be mutable:

List<Object[]> bar = Collections.singletonList(new Object[]{"bar", 286});

If your list only has one element in it, Collections.singletonList(new Object[] {...}) is a better choice, as it avoids varargs and makes the behavior more obvious at the call site.