As you know not everything in Java is an object. There are a few groups of data types (also known as primitive types) that will be used quite often in your programming. For performance reasons, the designers of the Java language decided to include these primitive types.
Creating an object using new isn't very efficient because new will place objects on the heap. This approach would be very costly for small and simple variables. Instead of creating variables using new, Java can use primitive types to create automatic variables that are not referenced. The variables hold the value, and it's placed on the stack so it's much more efficient.
Java determines the size of each primitive type. These sizes do not change from one machine architecture to another (as in most other languages). This is one of the critical features of the language that makes Java so portable.
Take note that all numeric types are signed. (No unsigned types).
Finally, notice that each primitive data type also has a "wrapper" class defined for it. This means that you can create a "nonprimitive object" (using the wrapper class) on the heap (just like any other object) to represent the particular primitive type.
For example:int i = 5; Integer I = new Integer(i);ORInteger I = new Integer(5);
Data Types and Data Structures
Primitive Type Size Minimum Value Maximum Value Wrapper Type char 16-bit Unicode 0 Unicode 216-1 Character byte 8-bit -128 +127 Byte short 16-bit -215
(-32,768)+215-1
(32,767)Short int 32-bit -231
(-2,147,483,648)+231-1
(2,147,483,647)Integer long 64-bit -263
(-9,223,372,036,854,775,808)+263-1
(9,223,372,036,854,775,807)Long float 32-bit 32-bit IEEE 754 floating-point numbers Float double 64-bit 64-bit IEEE 754 floating-point numbers Double boolean 1-bit true or false Boolean void ----- ----- ----- Void
