Editing Java syntax (section)

===Boxing and unboxing===
This language feature was introduced in [[J2SE 5.0]]. ''Boxing'' is the operation of converting a value of a primitive type into a value of a corresponding reference type, which serves as a wrapper for this particular primitive type. ''Unboxing'' is the reverse operation of converting a value of a reference type (previously boxed) into a value of a corresponding primitive type. Neither operation requires an explicit conversion.

Example:
<syntaxhighlight lang="java">
int foo = 42; // Primitive type
Integer bar = foo; /* foo is boxed to bar, bar is of Integer type,
                      which serves as a wrapper for int */
int foo2 = bar; // Unboxed back to primitive type
</syntaxhighlight>