For built-ins, such as numeric types and "char" (String is obviously disallowed from this definition), final will prevent changes to instances of those types similar to what "const int" does for C++.

For pointers, however, the final keyword in Java limits the ability to change the variable holding the pointer, not to what it references. The equivalent in C++ would be:

  SomeClass * const foo = &instanceOfSomeClass;

Java (the language) does not possess the semantics to express "the pointer given to a method cannot allow changes to what it points."