All the primitive types are value types, in other words, they hold a value. Unlike primitive types, an array is a reference type and String is also a reference type.
Values Type
package anote;
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
int theValue = 10;
int anotherValue = theValue;
System.out.println("theValue is " + theValue );
System.out.println("anotherValue is " + anotherValue );
anotherValue++;
System.out.println("theValue is " + theValue );
System.out.println("anotherValue is " + anotherValue );
}
}theValue is 10
anotherValue is 10
theValue is 10
anotherValue is 11The value type is a single space in memory is allocated to store the value, thus the values directly holds the values.
the example (theValue and anotherValue) holds the values independently.
Reference type
package anote;
import java.util.Arrays;
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
int [] theArray = new int [5];
int [] anotherArray = theArray;
System.out.println("theArray is " + Arrays.toString(theArray));
System.out.println("anotherArray is " + Arrays.toString(anotherArray));
anotherArray[0] = 1;
System.out.println("theArray is " + Arrays.toString(theArray));
System.out.println("anotherArray is " + Arrays.toString(anotherArray));
}
}theArray is [0, 0, 0, 0, 0]
anotherArray is [0, 0, 0, 0, 0]
theArray is [1, 0, 0, 0, 0]
anotherArray is [1, 0, 0, 0, 0]The Reference type, like array or classes. So whenever you see the new keywords that you are creating a new objects.
The reference type used by reference. The reference holds a reference or an address of the objects, but not objects itself. With reference types, we are using a reference to control the object in memory. So, we can not access the object directly.