Int dereferencing error question

Question

Hey what does the error "int cannt be dereferenced" mean. I get it when im calling a method with a variable read in from a file?

Answer 1

Java has two families of types: primitive types and reference types.
Primitves: byte, char, short, int, long, float, double, boolean.
References: Refer to objects, interfaces and arrays. People often simply think of them as "objects," which is a good enough approximation in many cicrcumstances.
To dereference is when you use the dot to get to a member (variable or method) that a reference refers to.
Object obj = new Object();
System.out.println(obj.hashCode());In the second line, we dereference obj to access its hashCode method.
Primitives (like int) don't have members, so you can't dereference them.int i = 5;
System.out.println(i.hashCode()); // can't do it. i doesn't refer to an object, so there are no methods associated with it