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what is the difference between pass by reference and call by reference in java ?
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Passing by reference means the called functions' parameter will be the same as the callers' passed argument (not the value, but the identity - the variable itself). Pass by value means the called functions' parameter will be a copy of the callers' passed argument.
Pass by reference (also called pass by address) means to pass the reference of an argument in the calling function to the corresponding formal parameter of the called function so that a copy of the address of the actual parameter is made in memory, i.e. the caller and the callee use the same variable for the parameter.
Passing by by reference refers to a method of passing the address of an argument in the calling function to a corresponding parameter in the called function. In C, the corresponding parameter in the called function must be declared as a pointer type.
Call By Address is a way of calling a function in which the address of the actual arguments is copied to the formal parameters. But, call by reference is a method of passing arguments to a function by copying the reference of an argument into the formal parameter.
Java does not pass any variables by reference.
It is tempting to think of objects being passed by reference in Java -- but harmful. Variables of object type are references. When passed, they are passed by value.
In other languages, pass-by-reference and call-by-reference are the same thing.
Edit: More detail is provided in the existing stackoverflow question "Is Java pass by reference?" (Spoiler: No.)
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Important concept - Java has no concept of "pass by reference". Everything in Java is passed by value. When you pass an object reference to a parameter in a method call, what you are really doing it is passing a value that points to the reference of your object.
The following URLs explain this in greater detail: http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/javaqa/2000-05/03-qa-0526-pass.html and http://javadude.com/articles/passbyvalue.htm?repost
Apparently (as noted in comments to your question) the terms "pass by reference" and "call by reference" mean the same thing.
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