Question

private static String getArgValue(String[] argsString, int[] jIndex, String classTag) {

    String thisToken;

    for( ; jIndex[0]<argsString.length ; jIndex[0]++) {
        System.out.println("jIndex[0]: " + jIndex[0]);

        if (condition) {
            // yadda yadda yadda
            jIndex[0]++;
            System.out.println("jIndex[0]: " + jIndex[0]);
            return retString;
        }
    }

    return retString;
}

I’ve tried wrapping it both with Integer and with an array, but neither have made changes to the original i variable. How it is called:

int[] j = new int[1];

for(int i=2; i< argsString.length; i++) {
    // yadda yadda yadda
    System.out.println("opening i: " + i);
    j[0] = i;

    thisArgValueString = getArgValue(argsString, j, thisArgClassString);
    System.out.println("closing i: " + i);
}

Example output:

opening i: 2
jIndex[0]: 2
jIndex[0]: 3
jIndex[0]: 5
closing i: 2

Answer 1

Try printing your int holder and not i itself:

System.out.println("closing i: " + j[0]);

Or you can simply reassign i:

i = j[0];
System.out.println("closing i: " + i);

Your original varialbe i will not change by itself as it is a primitive type. Integer is also not useful as it is immutable. So the code you provided is essentially the correct approach. You just have to understand, that j[0] = i only assigns the value of i to j[0] and does not link the content of j[0] to i. So you could just work with j[0] from that point on (like the first code in this post) or reassign i back from j[0] (like the second code in this post).