Object References

• Object variable holds a reference
  

  Greeter worldGreeter = new Greeter("World");
  

  An object reference describes the location in JVM memory of an object
  and is used to uniquely identify an object:
  
  
  
  
• Can have multiple references to the same object
  

  Greeter anotherGreeter = worldGreeter;
  
  
  

• Any operation executed on any variable referencing the same object affects
  the object itself. Assume a method setName(String newName) that
  changes the name Greeter instance variable.
  
  Executing this:

  anotherGreeter.setName("Dave");
  
  // now worldGreeter.sayHello() returns "Hello, Dave!"
  

  changes the object referred by both worldGreeter and anotherGreeter.