What is the difference between the primitive type short and the class Short in Java?

The primitive type short directly stores an integer value, occupying 2 bytes. The wrapper class Short is an object that stores a short value internally and provides additional methods, such as for parsing strings (parseShort()) or comparison (compareTo()).

Attribute	short	Short
Type	Primitive	Wrapper class
Memory	2 bytes	Larger (object overhead)
Null	Cannot be null	Can be null
Methods	None	Has methods
Performance	Faster	Slower (boxing/unboxing)