Grab a segment of an array in Java without creating a new array on heap

Disclaimer: This answer does not conform to the constraints of the question:

I don't want to have to create a new byte array in the heap memory just to do that.

(Honestly, I feel my answer is worthy of deletion. The answer by @unique72 is correct. Imma let this edit sit for a bit and then I shall delete this answer.)

I don't know of a way to do this directly with arrays without additional heap allocation, but the other answers using a sub-list wrapper have additional allocation for the wrapper only – but not the array – which would be useful in the case of a large array.

That said, if one is looking for brevity, the utility method Arrays.copyOfRange() was introduced in Java 6 (late 2006?):

byte [] a = new byte [] {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7};// get a[4], a[5]byte [] subArray = Arrays.copyOfRange(a, 4, 6);

Arrays.asList(myArray) delegates to new ArrayList(myArray), which doesn't copy the array but just stores the reference. Using List.subList(start, end) after that makes a SubList which just references the original list (which still just references the array). No copying of the array or its contents, just wrapper creation, and all lists involved are backed by the original array. (I thought it'd be heavier.)

If you're seeking a pointer style aliasing approach, so that you don't even need to allocate space and copy the data then I believe you're out of luck.

System.arraycopy() will copy from your source to destination, and efficiency is claimed for this utility. You do need to allocate the destination array.