Pass by reference or by value?

[Steve Holden]

Robert Dailey wrote:
> So immutable objects cannot be modified directly? I guess this means 
> integers are immutable and the act of assigning to one is a completely 
> new definition? 

Correct. A new value is bound to the name or item on the left-hand side 
- remember, all variables are pointers to values, there's no way to 
replace the value of a variable because of the automatic dereferencing. 
And yes, immutable objects can't be modified. At all, period. Hence the 
name.

>                 So if I were to create a class called Integer and give 
> it a .set() method, this would allow me to create mutable integers, and 
> thus passing in an object of type class Integer would allow me to modify 
> the value from inside the function?
> 
Well, the .set() method wouldn't be called automatically on an 
assignment statement but yes, if you passed an Integer object into your 
function and called its .set() method from inside then it should work.

As long as you get your mutable integer implementation correct, of 
course ;-). I'd suggest delegating everything except the .set() method 
to the underlying integer value.

regards
  Steve
-- 
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