What is the difference between primitive and reference type Java?

The short answer is primitives are data types, while references are pointers, which do not hold their values but point to their values and are used on/with objects .9 Oca 2012

There are two types of variables in Java, primitive and reference type. … The main difference between primitive and reference type is that primitive type always has a value, it can never be null but reference type can be null , which denotes the absence of value.8 Eyl 2021

Primitive Data Type: In Java, the primitive data types are the predefined data types of Java . They specify the size and type of any standard values. Java has 8 primitive data types namely byte, short, int, long, float, double, char and boolean.