How to do the equivalent of pass by reference for primitives in Java

Solution 1:

You have several choices. The one that makes the most sense really depends on what you're trying to do.

Choice 1: make toyNumber a public member variable in a class

class MyToy {
  public int toyNumber;
}

then pass a reference to a MyToy to your method.

void play(MyToy toy){  
    System.out.println("Toy number in play " + toy.toyNumber);   
    toy.toyNumber++;  
    System.out.println("Toy number in play after increement " + toy.toyNumber);   
}

Choice 2: return the value instead of pass by reference

int play(int toyNumber){  
    System.out.println("Toy number in play " + toyNumber);   
    toyNumber++;  
    System.out.println("Toy number in play after increement " + toyNumber);   
    return toyNumber
}

This choice would require a small change to the callsite in main so that it reads, toyNumber = temp.play(toyNumber);.

Choice 3: make it a class or static variable

If the two functions are methods on the same class or class instance, you could convert toyNumber into a class member variable.

Choice 4: Create a single element array of type int and pass that

This is considered a hack, but is sometimes employed to return values from inline class invocations.

void play(int [] toyNumber){  
    System.out.println("Toy number in play " + toyNumber[0]);   
    toyNumber[0]++;  
    System.out.println("Toy number in play after increement " + toyNumber[0]);   
}

Solution 2:

Java is not call by reference it is call by value only

But all variables of object type are actually pointers.

So if you use a Mutable Object you will see the behavior you want

public class XYZ {

    public static void main(String[] arg) {
        StringBuilder toyNumber = new StringBuilder("5");
        play(toyNumber);
        System.out.println("Toy number in main " + toyNumber);
    }

    private static void play(StringBuilder toyNumber) {
        System.out.println("Toy number in play " + toyNumber);
        toyNumber.append(" + 1");
        System.out.println("Toy number in play after increement " + toyNumber);
    }
}

Output of this code:

run:
Toy number in play 5
Toy number in play after increement 5 + 1
Toy number in main 5 + 1
BUILD SUCCESSFUL (total time: 0 seconds)

You can see this behavior in Standard libraries too. For example Collections.sort(); Collections.shuffle(); These methods does not return a new list but modifies it's argument object.

    List<Integer> mutableList = new ArrayList<Integer>();

    mutableList.add(1);
    mutableList.add(2);
    mutableList.add(3);
    mutableList.add(4);
    mutableList.add(5);

    System.out.println(mutableList);

    Collections.shuffle(mutableList);

    System.out.println(mutableList);

    Collections.sort(mutableList);

    System.out.println(mutableList);

Output of this code:

run:
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
[3, 4, 1, 5, 2]
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
BUILD SUCCESSFUL (total time: 0 seconds)

How to do the equivalent of pass by reference for primitives in Java

Solution 1:

Solution 2:

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