What are the advantages and disadvantages of using immutable objects in programming?

Advantages of immutable objects:

• Thread safety: immutable objects do not change after creation, which eliminates issues with concurrent access.
• Ease of understanding and debugging: the object's state does not change, making it easier to track logic.
• Use as keys in collections: immutable objects can be used in HashMap or HashSet without the risk of hash code changes.
• Predictability: no side effects when working with objects.

Disadvantages:

• Performance: when an object needs to be changed, a new instance is created, which can lead to additional memory and time costs.
• Complexity with large structures: changing nested data requires creating copies of all levels.

Example of an immutable class in Java:

public final class Person {
    private final String name;
    private final int age;

    public Person(String name, int age) {
        this.name = name;
        this.age = age;
    }

    public String getName() {
        return name;
    }

    public int getAge() {
        return age;
    }
}

Such a class cannot be changed after creation, ensuring safety and predictable behavior.