what is the size of reference variable in java [du

Question

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• reference type size in java 5 answers

What is the size of reference variables in java? I am quite sure it wont be dependent upon the architecture or is it? Does it bear any resemblance with concept of pointers in C? I have tries but could not get any convincing answer.

Answer 1

The amount of memory used by a reference depends on several parameters:

• on a 32-bit JVM, it will be 32 bits
• on a 64-bit JVM, it can be 32 or 64 bits depending on configuration. On hotspot for example, compressed ordinary object pointers is activated by default and the size of a reference is 32 bits. If you deactivate the option with -XX:-UseCompressedOops, they will use 64 bits.