In java are the parameters passed by reference or by value

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Is Java pass by reference?

And other duplicates or near-dups: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/498747/java-pass-by-value-reference-variables http://stackoverflow.com/questions/589919/does-java-pass-by-reference — T.J. Crowder, May 27 '10 at 12:11

score 6 · Answer 1 · answered May 27 '10 at 12:09

6

All parameters in Java are passed by value. However, for reference types those values are references.

There are plenty of articles on this, including this one and my own one.

answered May 27 '10 at 12:09

Jon Skeet

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score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered May 27 '10 at 12:11

There is exactly one parameter passing mode in Java -- pass by value -- and that helps keep things simple. -- James Gosling, "The Java Programming Language, Second Edition" (James Gosling being the father of Java)

Java is pass by value - always, for everything.

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered May 27 '10 at 12:12

5

Short answer: by value, where the value is sometimes a reference.

Longer answer: Any primitive type will be simply passed by value. For non-primitives, you don't hold the object, but only a reference to it. This reference is passed by value.

answered May 27 '10 at 12:12

unbeli

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered May 27 '10 at 12:11

Required reading on this subject (taken from javabot on irc://chat.freenode.net/##java):

http://javachannel.net/wiki/pmwiki.php/FAQ/PassingVariables

http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/javaqa/2000-05/03-qa-0526-pass.html

http://javadude.com/articles/passbyvalue.htm

In java are the parameters passed by reference or by value

4 Answers4