In this() or super() explicit constructor invocation you are not allowed to pass instance members (like j for instance) because the supertype is initialized prior to the subtype, thus j is not yet initialized when the superclass constructor is invoked.
From
JLS 8.8.5.1 Explicit Constructor Invocations
An explicit constructor invocation statement in a constructor body may not refer to any instance variables or instance methods declared in this class or any superclass, or use this or super in any expression; otherwise, a compile-time error occurs.
If you have a computer at hand you could try to compile the code and see what the compiler is saying. In this case it is saying:
cannot reference j before supertype constructor has been called
super(j);
The error message is very expressive, isn't it?
Please format your code using
CODE tags.
[ August 27, 2002: Message edited by: Valentin Crettaz ]