– Building blocks of the Java Programming language
– In Java, everything is an Object – except primitives
– Primitives exist because they are more efficient than their Object counterparts, but they are less flexible
Examples:
Primitive | Object Counterpart |
---|---|
int | Integer |
double | Double |
float | Float |
char | Character |
boolean | Boolean |
– Primitives declares as instance variables get default values:
Primitive | Default Value |
---|---|
int | 0 |
double | 0.0d |
float | 0.0f |
char | u000 |
boolean | false |
– The Primitives' Object Counterparts don't get a default value, they are just null
if they aren't assigned a value
Homework
Please go through this useful document from Oracle (the owners of Java) and read up on the finer points of Java Primitives, <sarcasm>it's just captivating reading</sarcasm>:
http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/java/nutsandbolts/datatypes.html