Java, pass-by-value, reference variables

Question

I have a problem with understanding the "pass-by-value" action of Java in the following example:

public class Numbers {

    static int[] s_ccc = {7};
    static int[] t_ccc = {7};

    public static void calculate(int[] b, int[] c) {

        System.out.println("s_ccc[0] = " + s_ccc[0]); // 7
        System.out.println("t_ccc[0] = " + t_ccc[0]); // 7

        b[0] = b[0] + 9;  
        System.out.println("\nb[0] = " + b[0]); // 16

        c = b;
        System.out.println("c[0] = " + c[0] + "\n"); // 16
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        calculate(s_ccc, t_ccc);

        System.out.println("s_ccc[0] = " + s_ccc[0]);  // 16
        System.out.println("t_ccc[0] = " + t_ccc[0]);  // 7 
    }
}

I know that because s_ccc is a reference variable, when I give it to the method calculate() and I make some changes to its elements in the method, the changes remain even after I leave the method. I think that the same should be with t_ccc. It is again a reference variable, I give it to the method calculate(), and in the method I change the referece to t_ccc to be that of s_ccc. Now t_ccc should be a reference variable pointing to an array, which has one element of type int equals to 16. But when the method calculate() is left, it seems that t_ccc points its old object. Why is this happening? Shouldn't the change remain for it, too? It is a reference variable after all.

Regards

Answer 1

There's an extended discussion of how Java passes variables at an earlier question "Is Java pass by reference?". Java really passes object references by value.

In your code, the references for the arrays (which are objects) are passed into calculate(). These references are passed by value, which means that any changes to the values of b and c are visible only within the method (they are really just a copy of s_ccc and t_ccc). That's why t_ccc in main() was never affected.

To reinforce this concept, some programmers declare the method parameters as final variables:

public static void calculate(final int[] b, final int[] c) 

Now, the compiler won't even allow you to change the values of b or c. Of course, the downside of this is that you can no longer manipulate them conveniently within your method.