ADDITIONAL SYSTEM INFORMATION :
Windows 11,
java version "1.8.0_221"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_221-b11)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.221-b11, mixed mode)

A DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM :
When setting the default value on an annotation which is storing an array of characters (char[]) when setting the value directly, the code compiles and functions correctly but when using a system constant, the value I get the following compile time error:

BadValue.java:19: error: incompatible types: char[] cannot be converted to char
        char[] values() default Const.CHARS;

STEPS TO FOLLOW TO REPRODUCE THE PROBLEM :
The following annotation code compiles as expected:

import java.lang.annotation.ElementType;
import java.lang.annotation.Inherited;
import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy;
import java.lang.annotation.Target;

@Inherited
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Target({ElementType.METHOD, ElementType.PARAMETER, ElementType.CONSTRUCTOR})
public @interface CharValue {
char[] values() default {'A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E', 'F', 'G', 'H', 'I', 'J', 'K', 'L', 'M', 'N', 'O', 'P', 'Q', 'R', 'S', 'T', 'U', 'V', 'W', 'X', 'Y', 'Z',
'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h', 'i', 'j', 'k', 'l', 'm', 'n', 'o', 'p', 'q', 'r', 's', 't', 'u', 'v', 'w', 'x', 'y', 'z',
'0', '1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9', ' ', '!', '"', '#', '$', '%', '&', '\'', ',', '(', ')', '*', '+', ',', '-', '.',
'/', ':', ';', '<', '=', '>', '?', '@', '[', '\\', ']', '^', '_', '`', '{', '|', '}', '~'};
}


Where as the follow code will not compile:

import java.lang.annotation.ElementType;
import java.lang.annotation.Inherited;
import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy;
import java.lang.annotation.Target;

class Const {
public static final char[] CHARS = {'A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E', 'F', 'G', 'H', 'I', 'J', 'K', 'L', 'M', 'N', 'O', 'P', 'Q', 'R', 'S', 'T',
'U', 'V', 'W', 'X', 'Y', 'Z', 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h', 'i', 'j', 'k', 'l', 'm', 'n', 'o', 'p', 'q', 'r', 's', 't',
'u', 'v', 'w', 'x', 'y', 'z', '0', '1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9', ' ', '!', '"', '#', '$', '%', '&', '\'', ',', '(',
')', '*', '+', ',', '-', '.', '/', ':', ';', '<', '=', '>', '?', '@', '[', '\\', ']', '^', '_', '`', '{', '|', '}', '~'};
}

@Inherited
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Target({ElementType.METHOD, ElementType.PARAMETER, ElementType.CONSTRUCTOR})
public @interface BadValue {
char[] values() default Const.CHARS;
}



EXPECTED VERSUS ACTUAL BEHAVIOR :
EXPECTED -
Both versions of the code should compile without a problem
ACTUAL -
Compiler error:
BadValue.java:19: error: incompatible types: char[] cannot be converted to char
        char[] values() default Const.CHARS;

---------- BEGIN SOURCE ----------

import java.lang.annotation.ElementType;
import java.lang.annotation.Inherited;
import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy;
import java.lang.annotation.Target;

@Inherited
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Target({ElementType.METHOD, ElementType.PARAMETER, ElementType.CONSTRUCTOR})
public @interface CharValue {
char[] values() default {'A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E', 'F', 'G', 'H', 'I', 'J', 'K', 'L', 'M', 'N', 'O', 'P', 'Q', 'R', 'S', 'T', 'U', 'V', 'W', 'X', 'Y', 'Z',
'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h', 'i', 'j', 'k', 'l', 'm', 'n', 'o', 'p', 'q', 'r', 's', 't', 'u', 'v', 'w', 'x', 'y', 'z',
'0', '1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9', ' ', '!', '"', '#', '$', '%', '&', '\'', ',', '(', ')', '*', '+', ',', '-', '.',
'/', ':', ';', '<', '=', '>', '?', '@', '[', '\\', ']', '^', '_', '`', '{', '|', '}', '~'};
}

import java.lang.annotation.ElementType;
import java.lang.annotation.Inherited;
import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy;
import java.lang.annotation.Target;

class Const {
public static final char[] CHARS = {'A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E', 'F', 'G', 'H', 'I', 'J', 'K', 'L', 'M', 'N', 'O', 'P', 'Q', 'R', 'S', 'T',
'U', 'V', 'W', 'X', 'Y', 'Z', 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h', 'i', 'j', 'k', 'l', 'm', 'n', 'o', 'p', 'q', 'r', 's', 't',
'u', 'v', 'w', 'x', 'y', 'z', '0', '1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9', ' ', '!', '"', '#', '$', '%', '&', '\'', ',', '(',
')', '*', '+', ',', '-', '.', '/', ':', ';', '<', '=', '>', '?', '@', '[', '\\', ']', '^', '_', '`', '{', '|', '}', '~'};
}

@Inherited
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Target({ElementType.METHOD, ElementType.PARAMETER, ElementType.CONSTRUCTOR})
public @interface BadValue {
char[] values() default Const.CHARS;
}

---------- END SOURCE ----------

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