why b is not boxed to wrapper Boolean to hold the value null.

[pradeep singh]

hi
Why the given below code is not legal?
answer is: null value is not compatible to boolean primitive type.
But my question is why b is not boxed to wrapper Boolean to hold the value null.

code is:


boolean b = null ;
if( b == null ){};

[Henry Wong]

The b reference is a primative variable. How do you expect it to hold an object? And even if you can box null to a Boolean, how do you expect a primative variable to hold a Boolean object?

Henry

[pradeep singh]

Yes you are right Mr.Henry Wong and i know this But my question is why primitive b can not boxed to Boolean b.

[Henry Wong]

Originally posted by pradeep singh:
Yes you are right Mr.Henry Wong and i know this But my question is why primitive b can not boxed to Boolean b.

Boxing is for objects -- not variables. Primative values get boxed to objects so that they can be assigned to referemces. Objects get unboxed so that they can be assigned to primative variables.

Although, it may seem like it does, it doesn't change a primative variable into a reference.

Henry