Are arrays passed by value or passed by reference in Java? [duplicate]

Answer 1

Arrays are in fact objects, so a reference is passed (the reference itself is passed by value, confused yet?). Quick example:

// assuming you allocated the list
public void addItem(Integer[] list, int item) {
    list[1] = item;
}

You will see the changes to the list from the calling code. However you can't change the reference itself, since it's passed by value:

// assuming you allocated the list
public void changeArray(Integer[] list) {
    list = null;
}

If you pass a non-null list, it won't be null by the time the method returns.