What is the Java equivalent of C++'s const member function?

Question

In C++, I can define an accessor member function that returns the value of (or reference to) a private data member, such that the caller cannot modify that private

Answer 1

There's no equivalent to the C const "type modifier" in Java (sadly).

The closest you can get is to return an immutable object or an immutable wrapper around a mutable object.

Immutability is not a language feature of Java, however, so you'll have to rely on Libraries.

Examples of immutable objects are:

• the primitive wrappers Integer, Character, ..
• String
• File
• URL

Commonly used immutable wrapper (i.e. wrappers around mutable types that prevent mutation) are those returned by the Collecton.unmodifiable*() methods.