Why Does Java Support both Wrapper Classes & Primitive types?

[Waez Ali]

Hi,
I just want to know,

1) Why does Java support both int & Integer,
char & Charecter,
and so on........?

2) When should we use these classes?

Please let me know this concept.

Thank You

[Lionel Badiou]

Hi Ali,

'int' and 'char' are basic types whereas 'Integer' and 'Character' are classes.

You may find a detailed explanation here

Best regards,

[Lionel Badiou]

oops ;-)

It seems that the link I have just provided forget to mention a noticeable point : basic types can't be used in association with Java Collections (ArrayList, Vector ...) whereas wrapper classes can. For example, you may declare a HashMap of 'Integer' but not a HashMmap of 'int' (as the Java collections work only on objects)

Best regards,

[Waez Ali]

Hello Peter,

I was so confused but I got it now
You are just great.


Thank you

Waez Ali.

[Layne Lund]

Primitive values should typically be preferred when doing extensive calculations. As mentioned, wrapper classes are helpful when you need to store primitives in a Collection. Since you cannot do this directly, the wrapper classes are necessary.

Layne

[Preetham Chandrasekhar]

cant use primitive types in Collections which form a major part of the Java programming language for managing the data structures.

[Preetham Chandrasekhar]

cant use primitive types in Collections which form a major part of the Java programming language for managing the data structures.