What does it mean to say a type is “boxed”?

Question

I have heard of types being referred to as \"boxed\" in some languages.

In Java, I have heard of \"autoboxing\". What is this? Is it having wrapper classes for a ty

Answer 1

Boxed means that they took a regular value type and created an object around it. Sort of like putting it in a box. This is generally to be avoided, because of the overhead of constructing the object.