Mutable boolean field in Java

Question

I need a mutable boolean field in Java (I will return this field via get* method later and it should be possible to modify this field).

Boolean doesn\'t work because

Answer 1

Are you really saying that you want callers to be able to modify the object's boolean value by manipulating what gets returned? So that the object and caller would share a reference to it?

Just so I understand, given:

class OddClass {
   private Boolean strangeFlag;
   public Object getAttrbiute(String attributeName) { 
      if (attributeName.equals("strangeflag")) return (Object)strangeFlag; 
      ...
   }
}

And then caller does:

   Boolean manipulableFlag = (Boolean) myOddClass.getAttrbiute ("strangeflag");

And then later, if caller changes the value of manipulableFlag, you want that change to happen in the OddClass instance, just as though caller had instead used a setAttrbiute method.

Is that what you're asking?

In that case, you'd need a holder class, as suggested by Adam.