How would I clear an entire array?

Question

I have to create a clear button that when pressed, clears all images off the screen. The images are currently in an array. I just saved what was in the array to the save.txt file. Now I need to click load, which clears all the image off the screen before loading where they previously were. How would I do this? This is my save code

else if (savePicture.isPointInElement(clickX, clickY)){ 
    FileWriter fw = new FileWriter("save.txt");
    for (int i = 0; i < image; i++){

        if (arraysticker[image] != null){
            String name;
            int x,y;
            name = sticker.getname();
            x = sticker.getx();
            y = sticker.gety();
            fw.write(name + " " + x + " " + y + "\n");
        }
    }
    fw.flush();
    fw.close();
    System.out.println("saved");
}

My entire code is

public class main {
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
    EZ.initialize(1644,1022);//sets page size
    sticker [] arraysticker = new sticker [20];//creates an array to hold 20 sticker
    EZImage backgroundPicture = EZ.addImage("background.png", EZ.getWindowWidth() / 2, EZ.getWindowHeight() / 2); //set position of background
    EZImage rectanglePicture = EZ.addImage("rectangle.png", EZ.getWindowWidth() / 2, EZ.getWindowHeight () / 7); //set position of palette
    EZImage hatPicture = EZ.addImage("hat.png",1* EZ.getWindowWidth() / 10, EZ.getWindowHeight () / 6); //set position of stickers
    EZImage bluntPicture = EZ.addImage("blunt.png",1* EZ.getWindowWidth() / 3, EZ.getWindowHeight () / 6); //set position of stickers
    EZImage dealwithitPicture = EZ.addImage("dealwithit.png",3* EZ.getWindowWidth() / 5, EZ.getWindowHeight () / 6); //set position of stickers
    EZImage weedPicture = EZ.addImage("weed.png",10* EZ.getWindowWidth() / 11, EZ.getWindowHeight () / 6); //set position of stickers
    EZImage savePicture = EZ.addImage("save.png", 19* EZ.getWindowWidth() / 20, 3* EZ.getWindowHeight () / 9);  //set position of save button
    EZImage loadPicture = EZ.addImage("load.png", 19* EZ.getWindowWidth() / 20, 4* EZ.getWindowHeight () / 9);
    EZImage clearPicture = EZ.addImage("clear.png", 19* EZ.getWindowWidth() / 20, 5* EZ.getWindowHeight () / 9);

    EZSound hatsound = EZ.addSound("airhorn.wav"); //imports airhorn.wav and assigns it to hatsound
    EZSound bluntsound = EZ.addSound("yungdog.wav"); //import yungdog.wav and assigns it to bluntsound
    EZSound dealwithitsound = EZ.addSound("sandstorm.wav"); //imports sandstorm.wav and assigns it to dealwithitsound
    EZSound weedsound = EZ.addSound("weed.wav"); //imports weed.wav and assigns it to weedsound

    sticker arrayhat = new sticker (20, "hat.png");
    sticker arrayblunt = new sticker (20, "blunt.png");
    sticker arraydealwithit = new sticker (20, "dealwithit.png");
    sticker arrayweed = new sticker (20, "weed.png");

    int image = 0;//declares an integer variable named image
    //creates a boolean variable and sets it to false
    boolean hatSoundPlay = false;
    boolean bluntSoundPlay = false;
    boolean dealwithitSoundPlay = false;
    boolean weedSoundPlay = false;
        while (true){//while it is true
        if (EZInteraction.wasMouseLeftButtonReleased()){//if left button is released
        int clickX = EZInteraction.getXMouse(); //get x coordinates
        int clickY = EZInteraction.getYMouse();//get y coordinates

            if (hatPicture.isPointInElement(clickX, clickY)){//if hat is in the x and y coordinates
                bluntSoundPlay = false; //turn all sounds false
                weedSoundPlay = false; 
                dealwithitSoundPlay = false; 
                if (!hatSoundPlay) { //if hatsound not play
                    hatsound.play(); //hatsound will play
                    hatSoundPlay = true; //hat sound is now true    
                }
            }
            else if(bluntPicture.isPointInElement(clickX, clickY)){//if blunt is in the x and y coordinates
                hatSoundPlay = false;//turn all sounds false
                weedSoundPlay = false;
                dealwithitSoundPlay = false;
                if (!bluntSoundPlay) {//if bluntsound not play
                    bluntsound.play(); //then bluntsound will play
                    bluntSoundPlay = true; //bluntSoundPLay is now assigned to true
                }
            }
            else if(dealwithitPicture.isPointInElement(clickX, clickY)){//if dealwithit is in the x and y coordinates
                hatSoundPlay = false;//turn all sounds false
                bluntSoundPlay = false;
                weedSoundPlay = false;
                if (!dealwithitSoundPlay) {//if dealwithitsound not play
                    dealwithitsound.play(); //then dealwithitsound will pay
                    dealwithitSoundPlay = true; //dealwithitSoundPlay is assigned as true
                }
            }
            else if(weedPicture.isPointInElement(clickX, clickY)){//if weed is in the x and y coordinates
                dealwithitSoundPlay = false;//turn all sounds false
                hatSoundPlay = false;
                bluntSoundPlay = false;
                if (!weedSoundPlay) {//if weedsound not play
                    weedsound.play(); //then weedsound will play
                    weedSoundPlay = true; //sets the varialbe weedSoundPlay to true
                } 
            }


            else if (backgroundPicture.isPointInElement(clickX, clickY) && !savePicture.isPointInElement(clickX, clickY) 
                    && !loadPicture.isPointInElement(clickX, clickY) && !clearPicture.isPointInElement(clickX, clickY) 
                    && !rectanglePicture.isPointInElement(clickX, clickY)){
                if (hatSoundPlay){ //if hatSoundPlay is true
                    hatsound.play(); //and a hatsound will play
                    sticker sticker1 = new sticker();//creates a new sticker1
                    sticker1.arraysticker(hatPicture, "hat.png", clickX, clickY);//places sticker
                    image ++;//increments image by 1
                    arraysticker[image] = sticker1;//puts sticker 1 into the array
                    FileWriter fw = new FileWriter("save.txt");


                } else if (bluntSoundPlay){ //else if bluntSound is true
                    bluntsound.play(); //and blunt sound will play
                    sticker sticker2 = new sticker();
                    sticker2.arraysticker(bluntPicture, "blunt.png", clickX, clickY);//places sticker
                    image ++;//increments image by 1
                    arraysticker[image] = sticker2;//puts sticker 2 into the array

                }else if (dealwithitSoundPlay){ //if dealwithitsound is true
                    dealwithitsound.play(); //dealwithitsound will play
                    sticker sticker3 = new sticker();
                    sticker3.arraysticker(dealwithitPicture, "dealwithit.png", clickX, clickY);//places sticker
                    image ++;//increments image by 1
                    arraysticker[image] = sticker3;//puts sticker 3 into the array

                }else if (weedSoundPlay){ //if weedsound is true
                    weedsound.play(); //weedsound will also play
                    sticker sticker4 = new sticker();
                    sticker4.arraysticker(weedPicture, "weed.png", clickX, clickY);//places sticker
                    image ++;//increments image by 1
                    arraysticker[image] = sticker4;//puts sticker 4 into the array
                }
            }
            else if (savePicture.isPointInElement(clickX, clickY)){ 
                FileWriter fw = new FileWriter("save.txt");
                for (int i = 0; i < image; i++){

                    if (arraysticker[image] != null){
                        String name;
                        int x,y;
                        name = sticker.getname();
                        x = sticker.getx();
                        y = sticker.gety();
                        fw.write(name + " " + x + " " + y + "\n");
                    }
                }

                fw.flush();
                fw.close();
                System.out.println("saved");
            }
            /*else if (loadPicture.isPointInElement(clickX, clickY)){
                Scanner sc = new Scanner (new File ("save.txt"));
                for (int i = 0; i < image; i++){
                    arraysticker.removeImage(arraysticker.image1[image]);
                }
            }*/

    }
        EZ.refreshScreen();     
    }
}

}

Answer 1

If arraysticker is not final then a simple reassignment would work:

arraysticker = new sicker[arraysticker.length];

This assumes you need the array to remain the same size. If that's not necessary then create an empty array:

arraysticker = new sicker[0];

If it is final then you could null out all the elements:

Arrays.fill( arraysticker, null );

Answer 2

Simply assign null to the reference.

arraysticker = null; // garbage collector will take care

or

arraysticker = new sicker[arraysticker.length]; // initialized to new length

or use

Arrays.fill(arraysticker, null);

it just loops through every element and sets it to null. This of course doesn't allow you to resize the array (to zero), if that's what you meant by "empty".

public static void fill(Object[] a,Object val)

Assigns the specified Object reference to each element of the specified array of Objects.

Parameters: a - the array to be filled val - the value to be stored in all elements of the array Throws: ArrayStoreException - if the specified value is not of a runtime type that can be stored in the specified array