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javatypesprimitive
Jon Smith
Jon Smith

Reputation: 57

Question about Java Primitive Types methods

I'm confused with primitive types in Java and the methods of converting one type to another. If, say, I have an integer and I want to convert it to a string, I need to use a static method of Integer or String, e.g.

String.valueOf(some_integer);

But if I want to convert a stirng to a char array I can use something like,

some_string.toCharArray();

My question is why? Why do I need to use a static method for the first one?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 5014

Answers (5)

Vinjamuri Satya Krishna
Vinjamuri Satya Krishna

Reputation: 109

Primitive types doen't have member methods in them. Moreover they are not object. In order to make a primitive type as an Object we can make use of Wrapper Classes. Using wrapper classes you can convert int to Integer object and char to Character object and this list continues.

Answering to you question String is not a primitive type. So you can make of Instance methods of String. Whereas int is a primitive type so you have to make use of static methods to acheive the same.

Upvotes: 0

bwawok
bwawok

Reputation: 15347

But to be realistic, you don't need to use String.valueOf( some int ). You can either do

when building a big string:

logger.debug("I did " + myInt + " things today!" );

or if by itself

logger.debug( "" + myInt );

Upvotes: 0

Bozho
Bozho

Reputation: 597076

Because the argument you pass - an int is a primitive, and primitives are not objects - you can't invoke methods on them.

If the integer was of the wrapper type Integer, you could've used someInteger.toString()

Upvotes: 5

Paul Tomblin
Paul Tomblin

Reputation: 182792

Because primitive types are just that, primitive. They don't have methods.

Upvotes: 1

Mateusz Dymczyk
Mateusz Dymczyk

Reputation: 15141

Because String isn't a primitive type, it's a class (which has methods), whereas integer, short, char etc. are all primitives (which don't have methods).

Upvotes: 3

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