Primitive wrapper class

In object oriented programming, a wrapper class is a class that encapsulates types, so that those types can be used to create object instances and methods in another class that need those types. So a primitive wrapper class is a wrapper class that encapsulates, hides or wraps data types from the eight primitive data types,[1] so that these can be used to create instantiated objects with methods in another class or in other classes.[2][3] The primitive wrapper classes are found in the Java API.

Primitive wrapper classes are used to create an Object that needs to represent primitive types in Collection classes (i.e., in the Java API), in the java.util package and in the java.lang.reflect reflection package. Collection classes are Java API defined classes that can store objects in a manner similar to how data structures like arrays store primitive data types like, int, double, long or char, etc.,[4] But arrays store primitive data types while collections actually store objects.

The primitive wrapper classes and their corresponding primitive types are:

Primitive type Wrapper class Constructor Arguments
byte Byte byte or String
short Short short or String
int Integer int or String
long Long long or String
float Float float, double or String
double Double double or String
char Character char
boolean Boolean boolean or String

The Difference between Wrapper Classes and Primitive Types

Primitive wrapper classes are not the same thing as are primitive types. The main difference is that whereas variables can be declared in Java as double, short, int, or char, etc., data types, the eight primitive wrapper classes create instantiated objects and methods that inherit but hide the eight primitive data types, not variables that are assigned data type values.[5]

Therefore, the term Primitive wrapper class does not mean that wrapper classes are primitive types. It should be understood to be a class that wraps primitive types. Wrapper classes can be used to store the same value as of a primitive type variable but the instances/objects of wrapper classes themselves are Non-Primitive. We cannot say that Wrapper classes themselves are Primitive types. They just wrap the primitive types.

The Byte, Short, Integer, Long, Float, and Double wrapper classes are all subclasses of the Number class.

The wrapper classes BigDecimal and BigInteger are not one of the primitive wrapper classes but are immutable.[6] [7]

The Wrapper Class Void

The wrapper class named Void is not a primitive wrapper class, specifically because void is not a primitive data type. However the Void wrapper class can be used to create new objects that have methods that are not expected to return a value.

Although it is a wrapper class, the Void class provides an object representation of the void return.

Atomic wrapper classes

With Java 5.0, additional wrapper classes were introduced in the java.util.concurrent.atomic package. These classes are mutable and cannot be used as a replacement for the regular wrapper classes. Instead, they provide atomic operations for addition, increment and assignment.

The atomic wrapper classes and their corresponding types are:

Primitive type Wrapper class
int AtomicInteger
long AtomicLong
boolean AtomicBoolean
V AtomicReference<V>

The AtomicInteger and AtomicLong classes are subclasses of the Number class. The AtomicReference class accepts the type parameter V that specifies the type of the object reference. (See "Generics in Java" for a description of type parameters in Java). V

See also

References

  1. ↑ S. J., Chapman, Introduction to Java, Prentice Hall, 1999.
  2. ↑ J. Murach, Murach's Java Programming, 4th Edition, Mike Murach and Associates, Inc., 2011.
  3. ↑ J. R., Hubbard, Programming with Java, Schaum's Outline Series/McGraw Hill, 1998.
  4. ↑ J. Murach, Murach's Java Programming, 4th Edition, Mike Murach and Associates, Inc., 2011.
  5. ↑ J. Murach, Murach's Java Programming, 4th Edition, Mike Murach and Associates, Inc., 2011.
  6. ↑ David O'Meara (2003-04). "Mutable and Immutable Objects: Which classes are Immutable?". Java Ranch. Retrieved 2012-05-14. The classes java.math.BigInteger and BigDecimal are not immutable either, although maybe they should have been. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ↑ Oracle. "Java documentation from oracle". Immutable arbitrary-precision integers.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/8/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.