Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger("com.mycompany");

String[] parameters = null;
logger.debug("Parameters are {}", parameters);

will throw a NullPointer exception as follows :

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException
at org.slf4j.helpers.MessageFormatter.arrayFormat(MessageFormatter.java:136)
at org.slf4j.impl.Log4jLoggerAdapter.debug(Log4jLoggerAdapter.java:223)

Obviously the compiler binds the debug method to : logger.debug(format, new Object[])

and to get around this we have to force the other method by using a typecast :
String[] parameters = null;
logger.debug("Parameters are {}", (Object)parameters);

Is there some better way around this ambiguity?