Objects and Primitives

There are two kinds of types in Java, primitive types and object types. Primitives, like int and boolean begin with lower-case letters; object types begin with upper-case letters. This distinction is useful because it reminds us of some of the differences between them:

• When you declare a primitive variable, you get storage space for a primitive value. When you declare an object variable, you get a space for a reference to an object. In order to get space for the object itself, you have to use the new command.
• If you don't initialize a primitive type, it is given a default value that depends on the type. For example, 0 for ints and true for booleans. The default value for object types is null, which indicates no object.
• Primitive variables are well isolated in the sense that there is nothing you can do in one method that will affect a variable in another method. Object variables can be tricky to work with because they are not as well isolated. If you pass a reference to an object as an argument, the method you invoke might modify the object, in which case you will see the effect. The same is true when you invoke a method on an object. Of course, that can be a good thing, but you have to be aware of it.

There is one other difference between primitives and object types. You cannot add new primitives to the Java language (unless you get yourself on the standards committee), but you can create new object types! We'll see how in the next chapter.