Use of pointers in Java [duplicate]

Question

For someone coming from C++ background, what is the best way to understand how Java operates without pointers?

Why do you think the absence of pointers needs to be compensated for? — President James K. Polk
– President James K. Polk, Commented Nov 11, 2016 at 21:00
Java has now way to acess memory directly by design and the absence of pointers is considered a feature. You don't have to think about deleting stuff after using it, you can't (normally) create a segfault or forget to terminate a string etc etc... — Gumbo
– Gumbo, Commented Nov 11, 2016 at 21:22
References are essentially pointers. The only thing java disallows is free manipulation of their value; by restricting the possible operations to dereferencing and assignment. — Durandal
– Durandal, Commented Nov 11, 2016 at 21:27
@JamesKPolk in order to access memory. Am I wrong in expecting so? — Ankit Sahay
– Ankit Sahay, Commented Nov 11, 2016 at 21:29
You haven't defined what you mean by "access memory." Java can manipulate objects on its heap as much as you like. — Louis Wasserman
– Louis Wasserman, Commented Nov 11, 2016 at 22:29

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:01:19Z

2

Java is a garbage collected language. There are pointers, but they are managed for you by a memory manager. See various answers on SO, such as What is the garbage collector in Java?

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:01

CommunityBot

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answered Nov 11, 2016 at 20:58

Lunaweaver

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