So i kind of understand what they are, and kind of not....


Person steve = new Person();
^that is creating an object of "steve" from class Person.



BUT, at the same time, "steve" is not an object, it's a reference in memory to the object?
This is kind of confusing to me, it makes sense that "steve" is an object... but it's also a reference? idk....

In C++ you can operate either on object, or a pointer to the object.

In Java, you do not have that choice.
Type variables (line int) are never a pointer.
Class variables are always a pointer.

In your example, you written 2 operations in a single line.
What happens here:
Person steve = null; // this is creating a pointer
steve = new Person(); // this is creating new object of class "Person", and assign it to your pointer.

Another example:

String x = null; // creating pointer to string

x = "A"; // creating an object containing "A"

x = "B";
// what java language will do:
// 1) create string object "B"
// 2) assign string object "B" to pointer variable "x"
// 3) Garbage collector will later remove string object "A", that stil exists in memory, but is not assigned to any pointer.

Also, whener the new keyword is used, we are talking about reference. So, for example:

Foo foo = new Foo();

You are assigning new reference to foo object.

Creating a new Foo object is not really a great example to use.

References are hidden from sight in Java, and the only time you have to think about the notion of a "reference" is when assigning an already existing object to a new variable.

Steve is a reference that references a New Person() that is currently residing within the Heap.