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In object-oriented (OO) and functional programming, an immutable object (unchangeable [1] object) is an object whose state cannot be modified after it is created. [2] This is in contrast to a mutable object (changeable object), which can be modified after it is created. [3]
Final variables can be used to construct trees of immutable objects. Once constructed, these objects are guaranteed not to change anymore. To achieve this, an immutable class must only have final fields, and these final fields may only have immutable types themselves. Java's primitive types are immutable, as are strings and several other classes.
Any call to a class (static or constructor call), triggers the static constructor execution. Static constructors are thread safe and implement a singleton pattern. When used in a generic programming class, static constructors are called at every new generic instantiation one per type. [8]: 38 [4]: 111 Static variables are instantiated as well.
Concrete classes have to explicitly declare they implement the immutable interface. This may not be possible if the concrete class "belongs to" third-party code, for instance, if it is contained within a library. The object is not really immutable and hence not suitable for use in data structures relying on immutability like hash maps.
Primitive wrapper classes are not the same thing as primitive types. Whereas variables, for example, can be declared in Java as data types double, short, int, etc., the primitive wrapper classes create instantiated objects and methods that inherit but hide the primitive data types, not like variables that are assigned the data type values.
Classes may inherit from other classes, so they are arranged in a hierarchy that represents "is-a-type-of" relationships. For example, class Employee might inherit from class Person. All the data and methods available to the parent class also appear in the child class with the same names.
A snippet of Java code with keywords highlighted in bold blue font. The syntax of Java is the set of rules defining how a Java program is written and interpreted.. The syntax is mostly derived from C and C++.
Java provides java.util.Date, a mutable reference type with millisecond precision, and (since Java 8) the java.time package (including classes such as LocalDate, LocalTime, and LocalDateTime for date-only, time-only, and date-and-time values), a set of immutable reference types with nanosecond precision. [24]