I though String was an object (scope question)

[Cudabean]

I wrote these two little classes:

class ScopeExplorer {
private static String m_objective[] = {"initial", "value"};
private static String m_objective2 = "initial value";
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println("Before 1: " + m_objective[0] + ", " + m_objective[1]);
System.out.println("Before 2: " + m_objective2);
Scoper scoper = new Scoper(m_objective, m_objective2);
System.out.println("After: 1 " + m_objective[0] + ", " + m_objective[1]);
System.out.println("After 2: " + m_objective2);
}
}

and

class Scoper {
Scoper(String[] objective, String objective2) {
objective[0] = "Hello";
objective[1] = "World";
objective2 = "Hello World";
}
}

The first class calls the second class and passes two arguments that both get changed in the constructor. When control passes back to main, only one gets changed, the other doesn't. Here's the output:

Before 1: initial, value
Before 2: initial value
After: 1 Hello, World
After 2: initial value

I thought that String was an object and as an object would be passed by reference, not value! Can anybody shed any light on this?

(Quick vbforum newbie question: how do you indent code? <pre> didn't work)

Marlin

[crptcblade]

Since String is a final class, new memory is allocated and the pointer is changed every time you change its value. So, in a sense, Strings are passed by value, not reference.