Can I pass parameters by reference in Java?

Question

I'd like semantics similar to C#'s ref keyword.

Answer 1

No.

Why ? Java has only one mode of passing arguments to methods: by value.

Note:

For primitives this is easy to understand: you get a copy of the value.

For all other you get a copy of the reference and this is called also passing by value.

It is all in this picture: