Instantiating a reference type

Object obj = new Object(); // Note the 'new' keyword

Where:

• Object is a reference type.
• obj is the variable in which to store the new reference.
• Object() is the call to a constructor of Object.

What happens:

• Space in memory is allocated for the object.
• The constructor Object() is called to initialize that memory space.
• The memory address is stored in obj, so that it references the newly created object.

This is different from primitives:

int i = 10;

Where the actual value 10 is stored in i.