Question

In Java, how are arrays manipulated?

a) By value
b) By reference
c) By object
d) By copy

Answer 1

In Java, arrays are manipulated by reference, meaning that changes to an array in one part of the code affect the same array elsewhere because they point to the same object in memory.

Step-by-step explanation:

In Java, arrays are manipulated by reference. When you work with arrays, you are handling a reference to the array in memory, not a direct copy of the array's contents.

If you pass an array to a method, any changes to the array within that method affect the original array because both the original reference and the method parameter reference the same array object in memory.

This concept is critical when methods are designed to alter the contents of an array, as they do not need to return a new array; they simply modify the existing array that is referenced by the caller.

To demonstrate, consider the following example:

public static void modifyArray(int[] array) {
if (array.length > 0) {
array[0] = 10;
}
}

public static void main(String[] args) {
int[] myArray = {1, 2, 3};
modifyArray(myArray);
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(myArray)); // Outputs: [10, 2, 3]
}

This code snippet illustrates how a change to array within modifyArray affects myArray because they both reference the same array object.