Java Wrapper Classes

Wrapper classes provide a way to use primitive data types (int, boolean, etc..) as objects.

The table below shows the primitive type and the equivalent wrapper class:

Primitive Data Type	Wrapper Class
byte	Byte
short	Short
int	Integer
long	Long
float	float
double	double
boolean	boolean
char	Character

Sometimes you must use wrapper classes, for example when working with Collection objects, such as ArrayList, where primitive types cannot be used (the list can only store objects):

Example

    
 ArrayList myNumbers =new ArrayList(); // Invsuccessalid
 ArrayList myNumbers = new ArrayList(); // Valid

Creating Wrapper Objects

To create a wrapper object, use the wrapper class instead of the primitive type. To get the value, you can just print the object:

Example

    
 public class Main {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    Integer myInt = 5;
    Double myDouble = 5.99;
    Character myChar = 'A';
    System.out.println(myInt);
    System.out.println(myDouble);
    System.out.println(myChar);
  }
}

For example, the following methods are used to get the value associated with the corresponding wrapper object: intValue(), byteValue(), shortValue(), longValue(), floatValue(), doubleValue(), charValue(), booleanValue().

This example will output the same result as the example above:

Example

    
public class Main {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    Integer myInt = 5;
    Double myDouble = 5.99;
    Character myChar = 'A';
    System.out.println(myInt.intValue());
    System.out.println(myDouble.doubleValue());
    System.out.println(myChar.charValue());
  }
}

Another useful method is the toString() method, which is used to convert wrapper objects to strings.

In the following example, we convert an Integer to a String, and use the length() method of the String class to output the length of the "string":

Example

    
public class Main {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    Integer myInt = 5;
    Double myDouble = 5.99;
    Character myChar = 'A';
    System.out.println(myInt.intValue());
    System.out.println(myDouble.doubleValue());
    System.out.println(myChar.charValue());
  }
}