System.arrayCopy() copies object or reference to object?

Question

I am having a final class NameAndValue. I copied an array of NameAndValue objects using System.arrayCopy() and when i changed a

Answer 1

It gets changed because both arrays are referencing the same underlying objects still. You could assign a new object to a position in the array and it wouldn't get reflected in the other array, but if you make a modification to the object that both arrays are pointing to, then both will see it differently.

In this sense, it's pass "reference by value", rather than strictly pass by reference - but the effect you're seeing is because the reference remains the same.

Copies like this are almost always shallow copies in Java, unless explicitly stated otherwise. This is no exception.