Runtime error related to incorrect reference passing

Question

Hi All,
Very strange problem this one, I know exactly what the problem is (I knew it was 1 of 2 things instantly), but have no idea why the JVM is doing it!!! The short answer is Java is incorrectly passing some values by reference. It is incorrectly linking some objects when it shouldn't. Even worse looking at the memory address they are different objects in different memory sectors, so why are they linked???????
Details:
I'm building a simple little app just to brush up on my Java, at the moment it using RMI, Swing, SAX & JDBC, but none of these are particular importatly for my problem.
In the DB I hold a table of roles (CODE + DESC). To access the DB I've written various CLASS_NAMEORM classes that do my Object to Relational Mapping.
One of these methods queries the DB for all the roles, and then builds a Role Object for it, before adding it to a Vector. The return for the method is the Vector [Typed as a List] so I can use it in the Swing GUI object to populate a ComboBox for selection.
The method returns the List as I would expect but, the List is always populated with the same Role object.
This is of course pointed to 1 of 2 problems:
I wasn't calling Iterator.next() in my method
The objects I was adding to the Vector were by reference, so they were in fact the "same"
Looking at my code I quickly ruled out 1, and 2 doesn't make any sense either as I initialise the Role object in a While loop, so the JVM should causes a new Object to be created in a sector of memory.
The code I'm using is:
   * Method to return all the roles in the system
   * @throws SQLException
   * @return List
  public List getAllRoles() throws SQLException{
    String SQLQuery;
    SQLQuery = "SELECT cd_role, ds_role FROM TB_ROLE ORDER BY cd_role;";
    SQLResults = theStatement.executeQuery(SQLQuery);
    Vector results = new Vector();
    while (SQLResults.next()){
      Role role;
      role = new Role(SQLResults.getString("cd_role"),SQLResults.getString("ds_role"));
      results.add(role);
    SQLResults.close();
    return results;
  }Now this returns a List where all the objects contain the last element. Well that's what I thought till I watched the debugger. Things get a little strange from here on here..... you need to read this carefully!!
On of the first loop the role is initialised to a Role object containing "Admin" "Adminstrator" (in the variables) held at memory location 72d
The role then gets added to the Vector so Vector[0] = Role.role@72d = "Admin" "Adminstrator"
On of the second loop the role is initialised to a Role object containing "MTH_MHGR" "Method Manager" (in the variables) held at memory location 72e. (Note the different memory adress!)
At this point instantly the variables of the first element of the Vector also becomes "MTH_MHGR" "Method Manager", yet according to the debugger the role items are not related because they are in different memory locations!!
The role then gets added to the Vector so Vector[0] = Role.role@72d = "MTH_MNGR" "Method Manager", Vector[1] = Role.role@72e = "MTH_MNGR" "Method Manager"
Now this puzzles me greatly as the JVM should not be doing this....... any insight would be most welcome!!!
Out of interest a near identical method in another of my ORM classes works fine!!!
   * Method to get all the tests in the DB
   * @throws SQLException
   * @return List
  public List getAllTests() throws SQLException{
    String SQLQuery;
    SQLQuery = "SELECT cd_test, ds_test, fl_repetitive FROM TB_TEST ORDER BY cd_test;";
    SQLResults = theStatement.executeQuery(SQLQuery);
    Vector results = new Vector();
    while (SQLResults.next()){
      Test test;
      test = new Test(SQLResults.getString("cd_test"),SQLResults.getString("ds_test"), SQLResults.getBoolean("fl_repetitive"));
      results.add(test);
    SQLResults.close();
    return results;
  }

Answer 1

sorry guys hit post, rather than preview..... there's a more correct version (where I cleaned up the English)