member assignmnet

[Rahul Pawar]

how come this will not produce any error ?
class Test {
Test() { k = 2; }
int j = 1;
int i = j;
int k;
}
can anybody explain ?
rahul

[Christopher Gregory]

Hey Rahul by the title of your post I assume you are refering to the assignment in the constructor Test() {k = 2;} There is nothing wrong with this statement. In fact that is often what a constructor is used for is to initialize member variables. Now if you had a constructor such as:
Test() {
int k = 4; // local (automatic) variable
this.k = 2; //referering to the member variable k
}
In this case because you've defined a local variable with the same name you'd have to use this.k to access the member variable k. But elsewise the way you have your constructor is fine!
Hope this answers your question!
Christopher

[Ishaan Mohan]

class Test {
Test() { k = 2; }
int j = 1;
int i = j;
int k;
}
Hi,
First variables initiallization take place and after that excecution of constructor.
1. j=1, i=1 and k=0(default)
2. After constructor execution k=2

[John Bateman]

Hi
Now I know that the order of execution is NOT Dependant on the order it is written in the class file. So you will have the in k default to 0 BEFORE it is set to 2 in the constructor.
When you create an object instance it will to the following. (I'll have to have this exact order confirmed though).
1- Initialize and set (default if necessary) any member variables.
2- Processes any "static" blocks.
3- Calls any super classes if nescessary (restarting at step 1 for the super class before continuing.)
3- executes the current constructor.
So the k=2 in the constructor is perfectly legal, and, it IS NOT overwritten by the default initialization of "k" 'after' the construtor.
k is defaulted to 0 way before the constructor is executed.
Hope this helps.
And I hope I didn't repeat myself too much.

[Sathi Chowdhury]

static block executes before the instance initializer .