I don't understand the connect or the difference between parameters and arguments. Can you use either as a method? How do you return an argument? Any help is greatly appreciated.
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1While not terribly well asked, I think it's a reasonable question and something a lot of people don't understand.Jon Skeet– Jon Skeet2015-07-25 09:37:51 +00:00Commented Jul 25, 2015 at 9:37
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2Hmmm ... I would vote to close this as a duplicate for "What's the difference between an argument and a parameter?". Although this has the C# tag, the concept is independent of any language.Seelenvirtuose– Seelenvirtuose2015-07-25 10:05:28 +00:00Commented Jul 25, 2015 at 10:05
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That is very good beginner (and not only) question. I remember struggling with it when I start learning programming since these terms ware used interchangeably, until someone finally said hat: "parameter stores argument passed to method". So you can see parameter as variable, and argument is value passed to method.Pshemo– Pshemo2015-07-25 11:27:18 +00:00Commented Jul 25, 2015 at 11:27
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It could also be a duplicate of Difference between arguments and parameters in Java. Well at the end, someone here hasn't spend much time for research :(.Tom– Tom2015-07-25 11:28:22 +00:00Commented Jul 25, 2015 at 11:28
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1 Answer
Warning: a lot of people don't differentiate between "parameter" and "argument". They should, but they don't - so you may well see a lot of pages with incorrect uses of the terms.
When you declare a method or constructor, the parameters are the bits you put in declarations to receive values to work with. For example:
public void foo(int x, int y)
Here x and y are the parameters. Within the method, they just act like local variables.
When you call a method or constructor, the arguments are the values that you pass in. Those act as the initial values of the parameters. So for example:
foo(5, 3);
Here 5 and 3 are the arguments - so the parameter x will start with a value of 5, and the parameter y will start with a value of 3. Of course, you can use a parameter (or any other variable) as an argument too. For example:
public void foo(int x, int y) {
System.out.println(y);
}
Here y is a parameter in the foo method, but its value is being used as the argument to the println method.
Can you use either as a method?
No, they're a completely different concept.
How do you return an argument?
Again, that doesn't really make sense. You can use the value of a parameter in a return statement though:
public int foo(int x, int y) {
// Normally you'd use y for something, of course
return x;
}
