1. Java Tutorial
2. What is Java?
3. Installing the Java SDK
4. Your First Java App
5. Java Main Method
6. Java Project Overview, Compilation and Execution
7. Java Core Concepts
8. Java Syntax
9. Java Variables
10. Java Data Types
11. Java Math Operators and Math Class
12. Java Arrays
13. Java String
14. Java Operations
15. Java if statements
16. Java Ternary Operator
17. Java switch Statements
18. Java instanceof operator
19. Java for Loops
20. Java while Loops
21. Java Classes
22. Java Fields
23. Java Methods
24. Java Constructors
25. Java Packages
26. Java Access Modifiers
27. Java Inheritance
28. Java Nested Classes
29. Java Record
30. Java Abstract Classes
31. Java Interfaces
32. Java Interfaces vs. Abstract Classes
33. Java Enums
34. Java Annotations
35. Java Lambda Expressions
36. Java Modules
37. Java Method Chaining
38. Java Scoped Access or Access Scoping
39. Java Exercises

• Primitive Data Types
• Object Types
• Object Versions of Primitive Data Types Are Immutable
• Auto Boxing
• Data Types in Other Languages

As explained in the text about Java variables, each variable in Java has a data type. Data types into two groups:

• Primitive data types
• Object references

A variable takes up a certain amount of space in memory. How much memory a variable takes depends on its data type.

A variable of a primitive data type contains the value of the variable directly in the memory allocated to the variable. For instance, a number or a character.

A variable of an object reference type is different from a variable of a primitive type. A variable of an object type is also called a reference. The variable itself does not contain the object, but contains a reference to the object. The reference points to somewhere else in memory where the whole object is stored. Via the reference stored in the variable you can access fields and methods of the referenced object. It is possible to have many different variables reference the same object. This is not possible with primitive data types.

Primitive Data Types

The Java language contains the following primitive data types:

That these are primitive data types means that they are not objects, nor references to objects (classes and objects are explained in later texts in this Java tutorial).

Here is an example of how you declare a variable of a primitive type:

int myInt;

Object Types

The primitive types also come in versions that are full-blown objects. That means that you reference them via an object reference, that you can have multiple references to the same value, and you can call methods on them like on any other object in Java. The list of core object data types below contains the object versions of the primitive types. The list also contains a few other of the core object types in Java.

Notice how object types are spelled with a capital letter in the beginning of their name, where the primitive version (non-object) is spelled in all lowercase characters. There are also abbreviation differences, like int vs. Integer and char vs. Character.

There are of course many other components you can use in the Java API, but the above mentioned data types are the core Java types. The String type is explained in more detail in its own text: Java Strings.

You can also create your own more complex data types by creating custom classes. I will get back to how in a later text.

Here is how you declare a variable of (reference to) one of the core object types:

Integer myInteger;

When you declare an object reference variable, the reference does not point to any object. You need to create (instantiate) an object first. Here is how that is done:

Integer myInteger;

myInteger = new Integer(45);

This example makes the myInteger variable reference an Integer object which internally contains the value 45. It is the new Integer(45) part of the code that creates the Integer object.

You can also create the object already when the variable is declared, like this:

Integer myInteger = new Integer(45);

Object Versions of Primitive Data Types Are Immutable

The object versions of the primitive data types are immutable, meaning the values stored inside them cannot be changed once set. For instance, the value stored inside an Integer object cannot be changed once the object has been created.

The variable that references the object can be made to point to another object though. Here is an example:

Integer myInteger = new Integer(45);

myInteger = new Integer(33);

As you can see, the variable in the example is made to point to another Integer object.

Auto Boxing

Before Java 5 you had to call methods on the object versions of the primitive types, to get their value out as a primitive type. For instance:

Integer myInteger = new Integer(45);

int myInt = myInteger.intValue();

From Java 5 you have a concept called "auto boxing". That means that Java can automatically "box" a primitive variable in an object version, if that is required, or "unbox" an object version of the primitive data type if required. For instance, the example before could be written like this:

Integer myInteger = new Integer(45);

int myInt = myInteger;

In this case Java would automatically extract the int value from the myInteger object and assign that value to myInt.

Similarly, creating an object version of a primitive data type variable was a manual action before Java:

int myInt = 45;

Integer myInteger = new Integer(myInt);

With auto boxing Java can do this for you. Now you can write:

int myInt = 45;

Integer myInteger = myInt;

Java will then automatically "box" the primitive data type inside an object version of the corresponding type.

Java's auto boxing features enables you to use primitive data types where the object version of that data type was normally required, and vice versa. There is one pitfall to keep in mind though. A variable of type object (a reference to an object) can point to null, meaning it points to nothing - no object. If you try to convert null to a primitive value you will get a NullPointerException (an error that causes the program to fail). This code shows an example of that:

Integer myInteger = null;

int myInt = myInteger;

This code will compile alright, but when executed it will result in a NullPointerException because the variable myInteger points to null. It is thus not possible to convert (unbox) the value of the object it points to, because it does not point to any object.

Data Types in Other Languages

For the curious reader, here are links to tutorials about data types in all the programming languages covered here at Jenkov.com:

• Java Data Types
• Python Data Types