What is meant by immutable?

Question

This could be the dumbest question ever asked but I think it is quite confusing for a Java newbie.

1. Can somebody clarify what is meant by immutable? <

Answer 1

"immutable" means you cannot change value. If you have an instance of String class, any method you call which seems to modify the value, will actually create another String.

String foo = "Hello";
foo.substring(3);
<-- foo here still has the same value "Hello"

To preserve changes you should do something like this foo = foo.sustring(3);

Immutable vs mutable can be funny when you work with collections. Think about what will happen if you use mutable object as a key for map and then change the value (tip: think about equals and hashCode).