Instance variable and Reference variable

[nirjari patel]

Is instance variable and reference variable same or diferent ? Is it different names for same thing or different things altogrther ? Is there any other name they are known as (may be "object variable") ?

If they are different, then whats the difference between them ?

Thanks

[Jesper de Jong]

nirjari patel wrote:Is instance variable and reference variable same or diferent ? Is it different names for same thing or different things altogrther ? Is there any other name they are known as (may be "object variable") ?

Those are two different concepts. An instance variable is a non-static member variable of a class. All variables of non-primitive types are reference variables in Java. A variable can be an instance variable and a reference variable at the same time, ofcourse.

Besides instance variables, you have class variables (static member variables of a class) and local variables (locally declared in a method or other block of code).

Besides reference variables, you have variables of primitive types (byte, short, int, long, float, double, boolean, char).