Weirdness in Equated Java Arrays: References vs. Pointers

Question

Having a problem understanding what\'s going on n the code below. The behavior of arrays c and d is what I would expect. But what\'s going on with

Answer 1

There is an important point of arrays that is often not taught or missed in java classes. When arrays are passed to a function, then another pointer is created to the same array ( the same pointer is never passed ). You can manipulate the array using both the pointers, but once you assign the second pointer to a new array in the called method and return back by void to calling function, then the original pointer still remains unchanged.

You can directly run the code here : https://www.compilejava.net/

import java.util.Arrays;

public class HelloWorld
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        int Main_Array[] = {20,19,18,4,16,15,14,4,12,11,9};
        Demo1.Demo1(Main_Array);
        // THE POINTER Main_Array IS NOT PASSED TO Demo1
        // A DIFFERENT POINTER TO THE SAME LOCATION OF Main_Array IS PASSED TO Demo1

        System.out.println("Main_Array = "+Arrays.toString(Main_Array));
        // outputs : Main_Array = [20, 19, 18, 4, 16, 15, 14, 4, 12, 11, 9]
        // Since Main_Array points to the original location,
        // I cannot access the results of Demo1 , Demo2 when they are void.
        // I can use array clone method in Demo1 to get the required result,
        // but it would be faster if Demo1 returned the result to main
    }
}

public class Demo1
{
    public static void Demo1(int A[])
    {
        int B[] = new int[A.length];
        System.out.println("B = "+Arrays.toString(B)); // output : B = [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]
        Demo2.Demo2(A,B);
        System.out.println("B = "+Arrays.toString(B)); // output : B = [9999, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]
        System.out.println("A = "+Arrays.toString(A)); // output : A = [20, 19, 18, 4, 16, 15, 14, 4, 12, 11, 9]

        A = B;
        // A was pointing to location of Main_Array, now it points to location of B
        // Main_Array pointer still keeps pointing to the original location in void main

        System.out.println("A = "+Arrays.toString(A)); // output : A = [9999, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]
        // Hence to access this result from main, I have to return it to main
    }
}
public class Demo2
{
    public static void Demo2(int AAA[],int BBB[])
    {
        BBB[0] = 9999;
        // BBB points to the same location as B in Demo1, so whatever I do
        // with BBB, I am manipulating the location. Since B points to the
        // same location, I can access the results from B
    }
}