Javarevisited: Difference between Primitive and Reference variable in Java

Javarevisited: Difference between Primitive and Reference variable in Java

▼ Difference between Primitive and Reference variable in Java There are two types of variables in Java, primitive and reference type. All the basic types e.g. int, boolean, char, short, float, long and double are known as primitive types. JVM treats them differently than reference types, which is used to point objects e.g. String, Thread, File and others. Reference variables are not pointers but a handle to the object which are created in heap memory. Main difference between primitive and reference type is that, primitive type always has a value, it can never be null but reference type can be null, which denotes absence of value. So if you create a primitive variable of type int and forget to initialize it then it's value would be 0, the default value of integral type in Java, but a reference variable by default has null value, which means no reference is assigned to it. If you try to access any field or invoke a method on null reference,

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