Micro Focus Visual COBOL 2.3 for Visual Studio 2015 > Programming > Using COBOL and Java Together > Calling OO COBOL from Java > Using BY REFERENCE Parameters

Using BY REFERENCE Parameters

Restriction: This applies to native code only.

When parameters to a method are declared as BY REFERENCE, the default behavior is for any updates to those parameters to be reflected in the corresponding Java objects in the calling Java class on return from the OO COBOL method.

If you do not want the Java objects to be updated, you can set the following static variable:

static boolean mfcobol.runtimeProperties.updateByRefParams;

The default value for this variable is true. Set it to false if you do not want the Java objects to be updated.

Note: In an earlier version of this COBOL development system, the default behavior was for updates to BY REFERENCE parameters not to be reflected in the calling Java. If you have existing Java code that makes use of that behavior, you need to modify it to set mfcobol.runtimeProperties.updateByRefParams to false.

Your COBOL development system includes a demonstration program that illustrates the different ways of handling BY REFERENCE parameters.