title: JAVA Returning an object or pass by reference
body: <p>Here a beginners question.</p>
  
  <p>Is there any difference in JAVA between passing an object as argument to a method or returning that object from the method. For instance: Is it better to pass a List as an argument and fill it in the method or just allow the method to return a list?</p>
  
  <p>My guess is that it should be no difference since a reference is returned and nothing is copied. But is there something more subtle behind?</p>
  
  <p>thanks in advance</p>
  
  <p>Altober</p>