Autoboxing

Autoboxing is converts primitive data type into it's equivalent wrapper type class automatically in Java. E.g: int primitive type is converted to Integer Wrapper class in autoboxing.

Widening

Widening in Java can be defined as converting a variable of a particular type into wider type. E.g: short is converted int primitive type.

In method overloading,widening beats boxing whenever there is possibility of widening and boxing.

Program of Autoboxing where widening beats boxing:

class Boxing1
{  
  static void m(int i)  //overloaded method,int primitive type
  {
   System.out.println("int");
  }  
  static void m(Integer i)   //overloaded method,Integer wrapper type
  {
   System.out.println("Integer");
  }  
  public static void main(String args[])
  {  
   short s=30;  
   m(s);  
 }   
}  

Output:

int

In above program when overloaded method m is called from main with short primitive type value as parameter in m then it is converted to wider type i.e int primitive type and thus m function with int primitive type as an argument is called.