when does a variable is initialized ?

[ashwin bhawsar]

for a local variable :
i know that we need to initialize a local variable before using it

public class MyClass {	
	public static void main(String[] args) {	
		int j=j+1; // error : The local variable j may not have been initialized
	}
}

for static variable:

public class MyClass {	
	static int j=j+1; // error : Cannot reference a field before it is defined
	public static void main(String[] args) {
	}
}

What does this error says ? variable 'j' should be initialized automatically as it is a static one, then why we get this error.
Why dont we get the same error for local variables. Why for local variable its says that it must be initialized before using instead of saying that we cannot use it before it is not defined ? At what stage a variable gets defined ? is it after completing the statement ?

[Wim Vanni]

Java operators

Read the above article and pay particular attention to the right to left evaluation. It should make things clearer.

Cheers,
Wim

[ashwin bhawsar]

ok, cool so what this article says is that

All binary operators except for the assignment operators are evaluated from left to right; assignment operators are evaluated right to left.

This gives the answer for the question, so in both the cases

static int j=j+1;
int i = i+1;

The compiler tries to evaluate the RHS of the '=' where it need i and j , and throws an error because it cannot find it.

Thanks