Question

It is probably a basic question, but I am not sure what keywords to use to search it.

Is it possible to assign a value to a return variable in Java, something like that:

static int a[] = new int[2];

static int f(int i) {
    return a[i];
}

static void main() {
    f(1) = 0; // <-- this
}

In C/C++ I can return a pointer and assign a value to it later. Since Java works with references I would expect the code above to work. Am I missing some important Java concept here?

Answer 1

Even if it is reference type, the method invokation is not a variable.

However, something like this would be OK:

static MyClass func() {
   return new MyClass();
}

public static void main(String[] args) {
   func().setAttr(null); // change attributes
}