Autoboxing: So I can write: Integer i = 0; instead of: Integer i = new Integer(0);

Question

Autoboxing seems to come down to the fact that I can write:

Integer i = 0; 

instead of:

Integer i = new Integer(0);
         


        

Answer 1

It exists so that you can write code like

List is = new ArrayList();
is.add(1); // auto-boxing
is.add(2);
is.add(3);

int sum = 0;
for (int i : is)  // auto-unboxing
{
    sum += i;
}

For single integers you should by default use the type int, not Integer. Integer is mostly for use in collections.

Beware that a Long is different from the same value as an Integer (using equals()), but as a long it is equal to an int (using ==).