Data is shared between functions by passing parameters. Now, there are 2 ways of passing parameters:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Java follows the following rules in storing variables:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Java always passes arguments\u00a0by value<\/em>, NOT by reference.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n So how is it that anyone can be at all confused by this, and believe that Java is pass by reference, or think they have an example of Java acting as pass by reference? The key point is that Java\u00a0never<\/strong>\u00a0provides direct access to the values of\u00a0objects themselves<\/em>, in\u00a0any<\/em>\u00a0circumstances. The only access to objects is through a\u00a0reference<\/em>\u00a0to that object. Because Java objects are\u00a0always<\/em>\u00a0accessed through a reference, rather than directly, it is common to talk about fields and variables\u00a0and method arguments<\/em>\u00a0as being\u00a0objects<\/em>, when pedantically they are only\u00a0references to objects<\/em>.\u00a0The confusion stems from this (strictly speaking, incorrect) change in nomenclature.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n So, when calling a method:<\/p>\n\n\n\n So if you have\u00a0 Naturally, passing by value a reference to an object looks very much like (and is indistinguishable in practice from) passing an object by reference.<\/p>\nint<\/code>,\u00a0long<\/code>, etc.), the pass by value is\u00a0the actual value<\/em>\u00a0of the primitive (for example, 3)<\/li>doSomething(foo)<\/code>\u00a0and\u00a0public void doSomething(Foo foo) { .. }<\/code>\u00a0the two Foos have copied\u00a0references<\/em>\u00a0that point to the same objects.<\/p>\n\n\n\nShare this:<\/h3>