13 May
2017
13 May
'17
9:36 p.m.
On Sat, 13 May 2017 12:42:47 +0000, Michael Kjörling <michael(a)kjorling.se>
wrote:
On 13 May 2017 13:35 +0100, from tfb(a)tfeb.org (Tim
Bradshaw):
Technically (and this is serious nit-picking), Java is always pass-by-value,
but the value of an array or object *variable* is the reference to the array
or object, not the array or object itself. So the behaviour is
pass-by-reference for arrays and objects (although that’s a simplification
too, and unhelpful in some instances).
The same applies to return values: primitive types are returned by value
(copied), arrays and objects are returned via their reference (which is
copied too).
Regards,
Stephen
Are there languages that copy arrays in function
calls defaultly?
Perhaps Fortran has some convention that allows that but I doubt it
gets used very much, because it would be insane in most cases:
COMPUTE_MEAN_TEMPERATURE(ATMOS) is really *not* going to work very
well if it involves copying the ATMOS array.
I'm not completely sure about arrays, but at least Java has pass by
reference in some cases where you might expect pass by value. IIRC
function return values is a prime example.