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What are the differences between Java primitive types vs boxed primitives?
What are variable types in Java
Every variable in Java has a type. There are two kinds of types for variables. They are:
- Primitive types
- Reference types
What are primitive types in Java
Primitive types directly contain values. There are 8 primitive types:
- byte
- short
- int
- long
- char
- float
- double
- boolean
What are reference types in Java
Reference types are references to objects. All reference types are a subclass of type java.lang.Object Following are 5 Java reference types.
- Annotation
- Array
- Class
- Enumeration
- Interface
Each of the primitive types in Java also has an equivalent reference type. For example, int has Integer, long has Long, boolean has Boolean, and so on. These reference types are called Boxed primitives.
Primitive types vs. Boxed Primitives
| Primitive Types | Boxed Primitives |
| It supports only functional values | It supports functional values and null |
| It is time and space efficient | It is less time and space efficient than primitive types |
| As it only supports values. So, 100 == 100 and efficient | As it has values and reference. new Integer(100) != new Integer(100). So avoid using == on boxed primitives |
| It can not be used as a argument for a generic type variable | It can be used as a argument for a generic type variable |