Question

I’ve got a pretty simple loop:

int[] positions = {1, 0, 0}

//print content of positions

for (int i : positions)
{
    if (i <= 0) i = -1;
}

//print content of positions

Now, what I would expect to get is:

array: 1, 0, 0
array: 1, -1, -1

but instead I get

array: 1, 0, 0
array: 1, 0, 0

Just… why?

Kind regards,
jellyfish

Answer 1

Because “i” is a copy of an array element and not a reference to it 🙂
You modify a local variable, not an array’s element

this code is equivalent to

for(int index = 0; index < array.length; index++) {

int i = array[index];
...
}