– 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