Why is init() needed?

[Barkat Mardhani]

When there is a constructor available for every servlet, what is the needed for a separate method init()?

[Mathias Nilsson]

A servlet is just like an applet in the respect that it has an init() method that acts as a constructor. Since the servlet environment takes care of instantiating the servlet, an explicit constructor is not needed. Any initialization code you need to run should be placed in the init() method since it gets called when the servlet is first loaded by the servlet container.
There is no reason to include a non-default constructor within s aervlet, because it would never get called. Do all your initializing in init().
// MAthias