Friday, December 18, 2015

Enhanced for loop and Immutability?

There I find a twist in the enhanced for loop and immutable nature. Where it does not change the data in an array of primitives, here I can see a clear variation.
Here is a Person class.
package test;
public class Person {
      private int pId;
      private String name;
      public Person(int pId, String name) {
          this.pId = pId;
          this.name = name;
     }
    public String toString(){
            return "Id : "+pId+" Name : "+name;
    }
    public int getpId() {
           return pId;
    }
    public void setpId(int pId) {
         this.pId = pId;
   }
   public String getName() {
         return name;
   }
   public void setName(String name) {
        this.name = name;
    }
}
And here is a tester class with enhanced for loop.
package test;
import static java.lang.Math.random;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
public class PersonList {
      public static void main(String[] args) {
           List<Person> pList = new ArrayList<>();
           pList.add( new Person(101,"John"));
           pList.add( new Person(102,"James"));
           pList.add( new Person(103,"Dan"));
           pList.add( new Person(104,"Mathew"));
           pList.add( new Person(105,"Sam"));

          System.out.println("Added List elements : "+pList);
         /* To perfomr element wise operation */
          for(Person p : pList){
                System.out.println(p);
          }
         /* you try to modify the data in pList through enhanced for loop */
                System.out.println("List elements now : ");
                for(Person p : pList){
                     if(p.getName().equals("Sam"))
                          p.setName("Samuel");
                 }
/* OOPs... it has not changed...But let us conform it once again by using enhanced for loop */
          System.out.println("After Updation : view element in the list : ");
          for(Person p : pList){
                 System.out.println(p);
          }
  }
}
When I run this I see something different.
Added List elements : [Id : 101 Name : John, Id : 102 Name : James, Id : 103 Name : Dan, Id : 104 Name : Mathew, Id : 105 Name : Sam]
Id : 101 Name : John
Id : 102 Name : James
Id : 103 Name : Dan
Id : 104 Name : Mathew
Id : 105 Name : Sam
List elements now : 
After Updation : view element in the list : 
Id : 101 Name : John
Id : 102 Name : James
Id : 103 Name : Dan
Id : 104 Name : Mathew
Id : 105 Name : Samuel
Now the question is why the name gets changed from within the enhanced for loop. Now in previous post x reads data from ArrayList, and value change in x does not reflect in ArrayList. But in current example, p holds the reference to an object and using reference, it change the value. Rest is left to your imagination... :) !!!


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