Data Structure
Networking
RDBMS
Operating System
Java
MS Excel
iOS
HTML
CSS
Android
Python
C Programming
C++
C#
MongoDB
MySQL
Javascript
PHP
Physics
Chemistry
Biology
Mathematics
English
Economics
Psychology
Social Studies
Fashion Studies
Legal Studies
- Selected Reading
- UPSC IAS Exams Notes
- Developer's Best Practices
- Questions and Answers
- Effective Resume Writing
- HR Interview Questions
- Computer Glossary
- Who is Who
Call by value and Call by reference in Java
Call by Value means calling a method with a parameter as value. Through this, the argument value is passed to the parameter.
While Call by Reference means calling a method with a parameter as a reference. Through this, the argument reference is passed to the parameter.
In call by value, the modification done to the parameter passed does not reflect in the caller's scope while in the call by reference, the modification done to the parameter passed are persistent and changes are reflected in the caller's scope.
Following is the example of the call by value −
The following program shows an example of passing a parameter by value. The values of the arguments remain the same even after the method invocation.
Example - Call By Value
public class Tester{
public static void main(String[] args){
int a = 30;
int b = 45;
System.out.println("Before swapping, a = " + a + " and b = " + b);
// Invoke the swap method
swapFunction(a, b);
System.out.println("
**Now, Before and After swapping values will be same here**:");
System.out.println("After swapping, a = " + a + " and b is " + b);
}
public static void swapFunction(int a, int b) {
System.out.println("Before swapping(Inside), a = " + a + " b = " + b);
// Swap n1 with n2
int c = a;
a = b;
b = c;
System.out.println("After swapping(Inside), a = " + a + " b = " + b);
}
}Output
This will produce the following result −
Before swapping, a = 30 and b = 45 Before swapping(Inside), a = 30 b = 45 After swapping(Inside), a = 45 b = 30 **Now, Before and After swapping values will be same here**: After swapping, a = 30 and b is 45
Example - Call By Reference
Java uses only call by value while passing reference variables as well. It creates a copy of references and passes them as valuable to the methods. As reference points to same address of object, creating a copy of reference is of no harm. But if new object is assigned to reference it will not be reflected.
public class JavaTester {
public static void main(String[] args) {
IntWrapper a = new IntWrapper(30);
IntWrapper b = new IntWrapper(45);
System.out.println("Before swapping, a = " + a.a + " and b = " + b.a);
// Invoke the swap method
swapFunction(a, b);
System.out.println("
**Now, Before and After swapping values will be different here**:");
System.out.println("After swapping, a = " + a.a + " and b is " + b.a);
}
public static void swapFunction(IntWrapper a, IntWrapper b) {
System.out.println("Before swapping(Inside), a = " + a.a + " b = " + b.a);
// Swap n1 with n2
IntWrapper c = new IntWrapper(a.a);
a.a = b.a;
b.a = c.a;
System.out.println("After swapping(Inside), a = " + a.a + " b = " + b.a);
}
}
class IntWrapper {
public int a;
public IntWrapper(int a){ this.a = a;}
}This will produce the following result −
Output
Before swapping, a = 30 and b = 45 Before swapping(Inside), a = 30 b = 45 After swapping(Inside), a = 45 b = 30 **Now, Before and After swapping values will be different here**: After swapping, a = 45 and b is 30
44K+ Views
