Variable modifiers

The modifiers public, protected, and private can be used in the declaration of a field variable to specify the accessibility of the variable. In this situation, the modifiers have the following meanings:[4]

[4] Version 1.0 of Java included a private protected access specification; this specification has been removed as of version 1.0.2 of the language.

public

A field variable that is declared public is accessible from any class.

protected

A field variable that is declared protected is accessible to any class that is part of the same package as the class in which the variable is declared. Such a field variable is also accessible to any subclass of the class in which it is declared; this occurs regardless of whether or not the subclass is part of the same package.

private

A field variable that is declared private is only accessible in the class in which it is declared. Such a field variable is not accessible to other classes. In particular, a field variable that is declared private is not accessible in subclasses of the class in which it is declared.

If a field variable is not declared with any of the access modifiers, the variable has the default accessibility. Default access is often called "friendly" access because it is similar to friendly access in C++. A variable with default access is accessible in any class that is part of the same package as the class in which the variable is declared. However, a friendly variable is not accessible to classes outside of the package in which it is declared, even if the desired classes are subclasses of the class in which it is declared.

The keywords static, final, transient, and volatile can also be used in the declaration of a field variable. These modifiers have the following meanings:

static

A field variable that is declared with the static modifier is called a class variable. There is exactly one copy of each class variable associated with the class; every instance of the class shares the single copy of the class's static variables. Thus, setting the value of a class variable changes the value of the variable for all objects that are instances of that class or any of its subclasses.

For example, if you want to count how many instances of a class have been instantiated, you can write:

class Foo {
    ...
    static int fooCount = 0;
    Foo() {
        fooCount++;
    }
    ...
}

A field variable that is not declared with the static modifier is called an instance variable. There is a distinct copy of each instance variable associated with every instance of the class. Thus, setting the value of an instance variable in one object does not affect the value of that instance variable in any other object.

final

If a field variable is declared with the final modifier, the variable is a named constant value. As such, it must be assigned an initial value. Any assignment to a final variable, other than the one that provides its initial value, is a compile-time error. The initial value for a final variable is typically provided by an initializer that is part of the variable's declaration. For example:

final int X = 4;

A final field variable that is not initialized in its declaration is called a blank final. Blank finals are not supported prior to Java 1.1. A blank final that is declared static must be assigned a value exactly once in a static initializer. A blank final that is not declared static must be assigned a value exactly once in an instance initializer or exactly once in each constructor. The compiler uses flow analysis that takes if statements and iteration statements into account to ensure that a blank final is assigned a value exactly once. Thus, it is possible to have multiple assignments to a blank final, so long as exactly one of them can be executed. For example, here is an instance initializer that sets the value of a blank final:

{
    final int DAYS_IN_YEAR;
    if (isLeapYear(new Date()))
        DAYS_IN_YEAR = 366;
    else
        DAYS_IN_YEAR = 365;
    ...
}

Note that the meaning of final in a variable declaration is very different from the meaning of final in a method or class declaration. In particular, if a class contains a final variable, you can declare a variable with the same name in a subclass of that class without causing an error.

transient

The transient modifier is used to indicate that a field variable is not part of the persistent state of an object. The java.io.ObjectOutputStream class defines write() methods that output a representation of an object that can be read later to create a copy of the object. These write() methods do not include field variables that are declared transient in the representation of an object.

volatile

The volatile modifier is used to tell the compiler that a field variable will be modified asynchronously by methods that are running in different threads. Each time the variable is accessed or set, it is fetched from or stored into global memory in a way that avoids the assumption that a version of the variable in a cache or a register is consistent with the version in global memory.

References Class Modifiers; Inner class modifiers; Local class modifiers; Method modifiers

Variable type

A field variable declaration must always specify the type of the variable. If the declaration of a field variable uses a primitive type, the variable contains a value of the specified primitive type. If the declaration uses a reference type, the variable contains a reference to the specified type of object.

The presence of square brackets in a variable declaration, after either the type or variable name, indicates that the variable contains a reference to an array. For example:

int a[];        // a is an array of int
int[] b;        // b is also an array of int

It is also possible to declare a variable to contain an array of arrays, or more generally, arrays nested to any level. Each pair of square brackets in the declaration corresponds to a dimension of the array; it makes no difference whether the brackets appear after the type or the variable name. For example:

int[][][] d3;      // Each of these is an array of
int[][] f3[];      // arrays of arrays of integers
int[] g3[][];
int h3[][][];
int[] j3, k3[];    // An array and an array of arrays

References Array Types; Primitive Types; Reference Types

Variable name

The identifier that follows the variable type is the name of the variable. This identifier can be used anywhere that the variable is accessible.

It is an error to declare two field variables with the same name in the same class. It is also an error to declare a field variable with the same name as a method declared in the same class or any of its superclasses.

If a field variable is declared with the same name as a variable declared in a superclass, the variable in the superclass is considered to be shadowed. If a variable is shadowed in a class, it cannot be accessed as a field of that class. However, a shadowed variable can be accessed by casting a reference to an object of that class to a reference to the appropriate superclass in which the variable is not shadowed. For example:

class A {
    int x = 4;
}
class B extends A {
    int x = 7;
    B () {
        int i = x;              // i gets the value of B's x
        int h = ((A)this).x;    // h gets the value of A's x
    }
}

Alternatively, if a variable is shadowed in a class but not in its immediate superclass, the methods of the class can access the shadowed variable using the keyword super. In the above example, this would look as follows:

int h = super.x;        // h gets the value of A's x

If a method is declared with the same name and parameters as a method in a superclass, the method in the superclass is considered to be overridden. Note that variable shadowing is different than method overriding. The most important difference is that using a reference to an instance of an object's superclass does not provide access to overridden methods. Overriding is described in detail in Method name.

References Field Expressions; Identifiers; Inheritance; Method name

Variable initializers

A variable declaration can contain an initializer. However, if a variable is declared to be final, it must either have an initializer or be initialized exactly once in a static initializer, instance initializer, or constructor. If the variable is of a non-array type, the expression in the initializer is evaluated and the variable is set to the result of the expression, as long as the result is assignment-compatible with the variable. If the variable is of an array type, the initializer must be an array initializer:

Each expression or array initializer in an array initializer is evaluated and becomes an element of the array produced by the initializer. The variable is set to the array produced by the initializer, as long as the assignment is assignment-compatible. Here are some examples of actual array initializers:

short a[] = {2,5,8,2,11};    // array of 5 shorts
int s[][] = { {3,45,8},      // array of 4 arrays
              {12,9,33},     // of 3 ints
              {7,22,53},
              {33,1,2} };

Note that a trailing comma is allowed within an array initializer. For example, the following is legal:

int x[] = {2,23,4,};

Any initializers for class variables (i.e., static variables) are evaluated when the class is loaded. The initializer for a class variable cannot refer to any instance variables in the class. An initializer for a static variable cannot refer to any static variables that are declared after its own declaration. The initial value of a class variable can also be set in a static initializer for the class; static initializers are described in Static Initializers.

Any initializers for instance variables are evaluated when a constructor for the class is called to create an instance of the class. Every class has at least one constructor that explicitly or implicitly calls one of the constructors of its immediate superclass before it does anything else. When the superclass's constructor returns, any instance variable initializers (and instance initializers) are evaluated before the constructor does anything else. The initial value of an instance variable can also be set in an instance initializer; instance initializers are described in Instance Initializers. Of course, it is also possible to set the initial values of instance variables explicitly in a constructor. Constructors are described in Constructors.

If a variable declaration does not contain an initializer, the variable is set to a default value. The actual value is determined by the variable's type. Table 5-1 shows the default values used for the various types in Java.

For an array, every element of the array is set to the appropriate default value, based on the type of elements in the array.

Here are some examples of variable declarations, with and without initializers:

int i,j;                 // initialized to zero
long k = 243L;
double d = k*1.414;
String s;                // initialized to null
char c[] = new char[123];
float f[] = { 3.2f, 4.7f, 9.12f, 345.9f};
Double dbl = new Double(382.3748);
java.io.File fl = new File("/dev/null");
Object o = fl;

References Array Types; Assignment Operators; Constructors; Expression 4; Instance Initializers; Static Initializers; Variable modifiers

Method modifiers

The modifiers public, protected, and private can be used in the declaration of a method to specify the accessibility of the method. In this situation, the modifiers have the following meanings:

public

A method that is declared public is accessible from any class.

protected

A method that is declared protected is accessible in any class that is part of the same package as the class in which the method is declared. Such a method is also accessible to any subclass of the class in which it is declared, regardless of whether or not the subclass is part of the same package.

private

A method that is declared private is only accessible in the class in which it is declared. Such a method is not accessible in other classes. In particular, a method that is declared private is not accessible in subclasses of the class in which it is declared. A method cannot be declared both private and abstract.

If a method is not declared with any of the access modifiers, it has the default accessibility. Default access is often called "friendly" access because it is similar to friendly access in C++. A method with default access is accessible in any class that is part of the same package as the class in which the method is declared. However, a friendly method is not accessible to classes outside of the package in which it is declared, even if the classes are subclasses of the class in which it is declared.

The keywords static, final, abstract, native, and synchronized can also be used in the declaration of a method. These modifiers have the following meanings:

static

A method that is declared with the static modifier is called a class method. Class methods are not associated with an instance of a class. This means that a class method cannot directly refer to other, non-static methods or variables in its class, unless the method or variable is accessed through an explicit object reference. In addition, the keywords this and super are treated as undefined variables within static methods. A method that is declared static is also implicitly final, or in other words, static methods cannot be overridden. A method that is declared static cannot also be declared abstract.

Because static methods are not associated with a class instance, you do not need an instance of a class to invoke such a method. For example, the Math class contains a collection of mathematical methods that can be called using the class name:

Math.tan(x)

A method that is not declared with the static modifier is called an instance method. Instance methods are associated with an instance of a class, so an instance method may contain direct references to any other methods or variables in its class.

final

A method that is declared with the final modifier cannot be overridden. In other words, if a method in a class is declared final, no subclass of that class can declare a method with the same name, number of parameters, and parameter types as the final method. Although final methods cannot be overridden, declaring a method to be final in no way prevents it from being overloaded.

abstract

If a method is declared with the abstract modifier, the declaration must end with a semicolon rather than a block. An abstract method declaration specifies the name, number and type of parameters, and return type of the method; it does not specify the implementation of the method. If a class contains an abstract method, the class must also be declared abstract. If a non-abstract class inherits an abstract method, the class must override the method and provide an implementation.

An abstract method cannot also be declared either private or static because neither private nor static methods can be overridden. A private method cannot be overridden because it is not inherited by its subclasses; a static method cannot be overridden because it is implicitly final.

native

If a method is declared with the native modifier, the declaration must end with a semicolon rather than a block. A native method is implemented in a platform-specific way using a language other than Java, such as C++. Because the implementation of a native method is not done in Java, Java requires the semicolon in place of an implementation.

Because the implementation of a native method is platform-specific, you should avoid using native methods in classes that are expected to run on different kinds of clients. Native methods also require an installation process, which is another reason to avoid them for use on clients.

synchronized

If a method is declared with the synchronized modifier, a thread must obtain a lock before it can invoke the method. If the method is not declared static, the thread must obtain a lock associated with the object used to access the method. If the method is declared static, the thread must obtain a lock associated with the class in which the method is declared.

A synchronized method is one of two mechanisms for providing single-threaded access to the contents of a class or object. The other mechanism is the synchronized statement. Of the two, a synchronized method is usually the preferred mechanism. If all access to instance data that is shared by multiple threads is through synchronized methods, the integrity of the instance data is guaranteed, no matter what the callers of the methods do. On the other hand, if instance data shared by multiple threads is directly accessible outside of the class that defines it or its subclasses, providing single-threaded access to the data requires the use of synchronized statements.

References Class Modifiers; Inner class modifiers; Local class modifiers; Variable modifiers

Method return type

A method declaration must always specify the type of value returned by the method. The return value can be of a primitive type or of a reference type. If the method does not return a value, it should be declared with its return type specified as void. The return type comes before the name of the method in the method declaration.

The presence of square brackets in a method declaration, after either the return type or the formal parameters, indicates that the method returns a reference to the specified type of array.

For example:

int a()[] {...};        // a returns an array of int
int[] b() {...};        // b also returns an array of int

It is also possible to declare that a method returns a reference to an array of arrays, or more generally, arrays nested to any level. Each pair of square brackets in the declaration corresponds to a dimension of the array; it makes no difference whether the brackets appear after the return type or the formal parameters. For example:

int[][][] d3() {...};    // Each of these returns an array of
int[][] f3()[] {...};    // arrays of arrays of integers
int[] g3()[][] {...};
int h3()[][][] {...};

If a method is declared with the void return type, any return statement that appears within the method must not contain a return value. Because a method with a void return type does not return a value, such a method can only be called from an expression statement that consists of a method call expression.

On the other hand, if a method is declared with a return type other than void, it must return through an explicit return statement that contains a return value that is assignment-compatible with the return type of the method.

References Array Types; Expression Statements; Primitive Types; Reference Types; The return Statement

Method name

The identifier that follows the return type is the name of the method. This identifier can be used anywhere that the method is accessible.

It is an error to declare two methods that have the same name, the same number of parameters, and the same type for each corresponding parameter in the same class. It is also an error to declare a method with the same name as a variable declared in the same class or any of its superclasses.

A method is said to be overloaded if there is more than one accessible method in a class with the same name, but with parameters that differ in number or type.[5] This situation can arise if two or more such methods are declared in the same class. It can also occur when at least one of the methods is defined in a superclass and the rest are in a subclass.

[5] Although Java supports overloaded methods, it does not allow programs to define overloaded operators. While it is true that the + operator is defined in an overloaded way, that operator is part of the language specification and it is the only overloaded operator.

Overloaded methods aren't required to have the same return type. For example:

int max(int x, int y){return x>y ? x : y;}
double max(double x, double y){return x>y ? x : y;}

A method that is inherited from a superclass is said to be overridden if a method in the inheriting class has the same name, number of parameters, and types of parameters as the inherited method. If the overridden method returns void, the overriding method must also return void. Otherwise, the return type of the overriding method must be the same as the type of the overridden method.

An overriding method can be more accessible than the overridden method, but it cannot be less accessible. In other words, a subclass cannot hide things that are visible in its superclass, but it can make visible things that are hidden. An object is considered to be an instance of its own class, as well as an instance of each of its superclasses. As a result, you can use an object reference to call a method in an object and not worry about whether the object is actually an instance of a subclass of the type of the reference. If a subclass were allowed to override methods of its superclass with methods that were less accessible, you would no longer be able to use a reference without regard to the actual type of the object being referenced.

For example, Object is the superclass of String. This means that a variable declared to contain a reference to an Object may actually refer to a String. The Object class defines a public method called hashCode(), so a reference to the Object class can be used to call the hashCode() method of whatever subclass of Object it refers to. Allowing a subclass of Object to declare a private hashcode() method would be inconsistent with this usage.

Table 5-2 shows the access modifiers that are permitted for an overriding method, based on the access allowed for the overridden method.

If a method in the superclass is declared private, it is not inherited by the subclass. This means that a method in the subclass that has the same name, number of parameters, and types of parameters does not override the private method in the superclass. As a result, the method in the subclass can have any return type and there are no restrictions on its accessibility.

Non-static methods must be called through an object reference. If a non-static method is called with no explicit object reference, it is implicitly called using the object reference this. At compile-time, the type of the object reference is used to determine the combinations of method names and parameters that are accessible to the calling expression (see Method Call Expression). At runtime, however, the actual type of the object determines which of the methods is called. If the actual object is an instance of a subclass of the referenced class and the subclass overrides the method being called, the overriding method in the subclass is invoked.

In other words, the actual type of the object is used to determine which method to call, not the type of the reference to that object. This means that you cannot simply cast an object reference to a superclass of the class of the actual object to call to an overridden method. Instead, you use the keyword super to access an overridden method in the superclass. For example:

class A {
    void doit() {
        ...
    }
}
class B extends A {
    void doit() {
        super.doit();      // calls overridden A.doit()
    }
    public static void main(String argv[]) {
        B b = new B();
        ((A)b).doit();     // calls B.doit()
    }
}

The doit() method in class B calls the overridden doit() method in class A using the super construct. But, in main(), the doit() method in class B is invoked because casting a reference does not provide access to overridden methods.

References Identifiers; Inheritance; Method Call Expression; Variable name

Method formal parameters

The formal parameters in a method declaration specify a list of variables to which values are assigned when the method is called:

Within the block that contains the implementation of the method, the method's formal parameters are treated as local variables; the name of each formal parameter is available as an identifier in the method's implementation. Formal parameters differ from local variables only in that their declaration and value come from outside the method's block.

If a formal parameter is declared final, any assignment to that parameter generates an error. The syntax for declaring final parameters is not supported prior to Java 1.1.

If a method has no formal parameters, the parentheses must still appear in the method declaration.

Here's an example of a method declaration with formal parameters:

abstract int foo(DataInputStream d, Double[] values, int weights[]) ;

The presence of square brackets in a formal parameter declaration, either as part of a reference type or after the name of a formal parameter, indicates that the formal parameter is an array type. For example:

foo(int a[],    // a is an array of int
    int[] b)    // b is also an array of int

It is also possible to declare that a formal parameter is an array of arrays, or more generally, arrays nested to any level. Each pair of square brackets in the declaration corresponds to a dimension of the array; it makes no difference whether the brackets appear with the type or after the name of the formal parameter. For example:

int[][][] d3        // Each of these is an array of
int[][] f3[]        // arrays of arrays of integers
int[] g3[][]
int h3[][][]

References Array Types; Blocks; Identifiers; Local Variables; Type 3

Method throws clause

If a method is expected to throw any exceptions, the method declaration must declare that fact in a throws clause. Java requires that most types of exceptions either be caught or declared, so bugs caused by programmers forgetting to handle particular types of exceptions are uncommon in Java programs.

If a method implementation contains a throw statement, or if the method calls another method declared with a throws clause, there is the possibility that an exception will be thrown from within the method. If the exception is not caught, it will be thrown out of the method to its caller. Any exception that can be thrown out of a method in this way must be listed in a throws clause in the method declaration, unless the exception is an instance of Error, RuntimeException, or a subclass of one of those classes. Subclasses of the Error class correspond to situations that are not easily predicted, such as the system running out of memory. Subclasses of RuntimeException correspond to many common runtime problems, such as illegal casts and array index problems. The classes listed in a throws clause must be Throwable or any of its subclasses; the Throwable class is the superclass of all objects that can be thrown in Java.

Consider the following example:

import java.io.IOException;
class throwsExample {
    char[] a;
    int position;
    ...
    // Method explicitly throws an exception
    int read() throws IOException {
        if (position >= a.length)
            throw new IOException();
        return a[position++];
    }
    // Method implicitly throws an exception
    String readUpTo(char terminator) throws IOException {
        StringBuffer s = new StringBuffer();
        while (true) {
            int c = read(); // Can throw IOException
            if (c == -1 || c == terminator) {
                return s.toString();
            }
            s.append((char)c);
        }
        return s.toString():
    }
    // Method catches an exception internally
    int getLength() {
        String s;
        try {
            s = readUpTo(':');
        } catch (IOException e) {
            return 0;
        }
        return s.length();
    }
    // Method can throw a RuntimeException
    int getAvgLength() {
        int count = 0;
        int total = 0;
        int len;
        while (true){
            len = getLength();
            if (len == 0)
                break;
            count++;
            total += len;
        }
        return total/count; // Can throw ArithmeticException
    }
}

The method read() can throw an IOException, so it declares that fact in its throws clause. Without that throws clause, the compiler would complain that the method must either declare IOException in its throws clause or catch it. Although the readUpTo() method does not explicitly throw any exceptions, it calls the read() method that does throw an IOException, so it declares that fact in its throws clause. Whether explicitly or implicitly thrown, the requirement to catch or declare an exception is the same. The getLength() method catches the IOException thrown by readUpTo(), so it does not have to declare the exception. The final method, getAvgLength(), can throw an ArithmeticException if count is zero. Because ArithmeticException is a subclass of RuntimeException, the fact that it can be thrown out of getAvgLength() does not need to be declared.

If a method overrides another method, the overriding method cannot throw anything that the overridden method does not throw. Specifically, if the declaration of a method contains a throws clause, any method that overrides that method cannot include any classes in its throws clause that are not declared in the overridden method. This restriction avoids surprises. When a method is called, the Java compiler requires that all of the objects listed the method's throws clause are either caught by the calling method or declared in the calling method's throws clause. The requirement that an overriding method cannot include any class in its throws clause that is not in the overridden method's throws clause ensures that the guarantee made by the compiler is respected by the runtime environment.

References Exception Handling 9; The throw Statement; The try Statement

Method implementation

A method declaration must end with either a block or a semicolon. If either the abstract or native modifier is used in the declaration, the declaration must end with a semicolon. All other method declarations must end with a block that defines the implementation of the method.

References Blocks; Method modifiers

Constructor modifiers

The modifiers public, protected, and private can be used in the declaration of a constructor to specify the accessibility of the constructor. In this situation, the modifiers have the following meanings:

public

A constructor that is declared public is accessible from any class.

protected

A constructor that is declared protected is accessible in any class that is part of the same package as the class in which the constructor is declared. Such a constructor is also accessible to any subclass of the class in which it is declared, regardless of whether or not the subclass is part of the same package.

private

A constructor that is declared private is accessible in the class in which it is declared. Such a constructor is not accessible in other classes. In particular, a constructor that is declared private is not accessible in subclasses of the class in which it is declared.

If a class is declared with at least one constructor, to prevent Java from providing a default public constructor, and all of the constructors are declared private, no other class can create an instance of the class. It makes sense to prevent the instantiation of a class if the class exists only to provide a collection of static methods. An example of this type of class is java.lang.Math.

private constructors can be used by static methods in the same class.

If a constructor is not declared with any of the access modifiers, the constructor has the default accessibility. Default access is often called "friendly" access because it is similar to friendly access in C++. A constructor with default access is accessible in any class that is part of the same package as the class in which the constructor is declared. However, a friendly constructor is not accessible in subclasses of the class in which it is declared.

References Class Modifiers; Inner class modifiers; Local class modifiers

Constructor name

A constructor has no name of its own. The identifier that appears in a constructor declaration must be the same as the name of the class in which the constructor is declared. This identifier can be used anywhere that the constructor is accessible.

References Class Types

Constructor return type

A constructor has no declared return type; it always returns an object that is an instance of its class. A return statement in a constructor is treated the same as it is in a method declared to return void; the return statement must not contain a return value. Note that it is not possible to explicitly declare a constructor to have the return type void.

References The return Statement

Constructor formal parameters

The formal parameters in a constructor declaration specify a list of variables to which values are assigned when the constructor is called. Within the block that contains the implementation of the constructor, the constructor's formal parameters are treated as local variables; the name of each formal parameter is available as an identifier in the constructor's implementation. Formal parameters differ from local variables only in that their declaration and value come from outside the constructor's block.

If a formal parameter is declared final, any assignment to that parameter generates an error. The syntax for declaring final parameters is not supported prior to Java 1.1.

If a constructor has no formal parameters, the parentheses must still appear in the constructor declaration.

The presence of square brackets in a formal parameter declaration, either as part of a reference type or after the name of a formal parameter, indicates that the formal parameter is an array type. For example:

Foo(int a[],    // a is an array of int
    int[] b)    // b is also an array of int

It is also possible to declare that a formal parameter is an array of arrays, or more generally, arrays nested to any level. Each pair of square brackets in the declaration corresponds to a dimension of the array; it makes no difference whether the brackets appear with the type or after the name of the formal parameter. For example:

int[][][] d3        // Each of these is an array of
int[][] f3[]        // arrays of arrays of integers
int[] g3[][]
int h3[][][]

References Array Types; Blocks; Method formal parameters; Local Variables

Constructor throws clause

If a constructor is expected to throw any exceptions, the constructor declaration must declare that fact in a throws clause. If a constructor implementation contains a throw statement, or if the constructor calls another constructor or method declared with a throws clause, there is the possibility that an exception will be thrown from within the constructor.

If the exception is not caught, it will be thrown out of the constructor to its caller. Any exception that can be thrown out of a constructor in this way must be listed in a throws clause in the constructor declaration, unless the exception is an instance of Error, RuntimeException, or a subclass of one of those classes.

Subclasses of the Error class correspond to situations that are not easily predicted, such as the system running out of memory. Subclasses of RuntimeException correspond to many common runtime problems, such as illegal casts and array index problems. The classes listed in a throws clause must be Throwable or any of its subclasses; the Throwable class is the superclass of all objects that can be thrown in Java.

References Exception Handling 9; The throw Statement; The try Statement

Constructor implementation

The block at the end of a constructor declaration contains the implementation of the constructor. The block is called the constructor body. The first statement in a constructor body is special; it is the only place that Java allows an explicit call to a constructor outside of an allocation expression. An explicit call to a constructor has a special form:

In an explicit constructor call, the keyword this can be used to specify a call to a constructor in the same class. The keyword super can be used to specify a call to a constructor in the immediate superclass.

For example:

class Square extends RegularPolygon {
    // Construct a square without specifying the length of the sides
    Square() {
        this(5);
    }
    // Construct a square with sides of a specified length
    Square(int len) {
        super(4,len);
    }
}

The first constructor simply calls the second constructor with the argument 5. The second constructor calls a constructor in the immediate superclass to create a four-sided regular polygon with sides of the given length.

Except for the constructors in the class Object, a constructor always begins by calling another constructor in the same class or in its immediate superclass. If the first statement in a constructor is not an explicit call to another constructor using this or super and the class is not Object, the compiler inserts a call to super() before the first statement in the constructor.

In other words, if a constructor does not begin with an explicit call to another constructor, it begins with an implicit call to the constructor of its immediate superclass that takes no argument. The result is constructor chaining: a constructor for each superclass of a class is called before the constructor of the class executes any of its own code. After all of the calls to the superclasses' constructors (explicit or implicit) have returned, any instance variables that have initializers are initialized, and finally the constructor executes its own code.

Constructor chaining places a restriction on the arguments that can be passed to a constructor in an explicit constructor call. The expressions provided as arguments must not refer to any instance variables of the object being created because these instance variables are not initialized until the superclass's constructor returns.

References ArgumentList 4.1.8; Object Allocation Expressions; this; super

The default constructor

If a class declaration does not contain any constructor declarations, Java supplies a default constructor for the class. The default constructor is public, it takes no arguments, and it simply calls the constructor of its class's superclass that takes no arguments. The default constructor is approximately equivalent to:

public MyClass() {
    super();
}

Because Java creates a default constructor only for a class that does not have any explicitly declared constructors, it is possible for the superclass of that class not to have a constructor that takes no arguments. If a class declaration does not contain a constructor declaration and its immediate superclass does not have a constructor that takes no arguments, the compiler issues an error message because the default constructor references a non-existent constructor in the superclass. The default constructor for the class Object does not contain a call to another constructor because class Object has no superclass.

References Object

Constructor inheritance

A subclass does not inherit constructors from its superclass, as it does normal methods. This is one important difference between regular methods and constructors: constructors are not inherited. However, a subclass can access a constructor in its superclass, as long as the constructor is accessible, based on any access modifiers used in its declaration.

This example illustrates the difference between inheritance and accessibility:

public class A {
    public A (int q) {
    }
}
public class B extends A {
    public B () {
        super(5);
    }
}

Although class B is a subclass of class A, B does not inherit the public constructor in A that takes a single argument. This means that if you try to create a new instance of B using an allocation expression with a single argument, you'll get an error message from the compiler. Here's an erroneous call:

B b1 = new B(9);

However, as shown in the example, the constructor in B can access the constructor in A using the keyword super.

Inner class modifiers

The keywords public, protected, and private can be used in the declaration of a nested top-level or member class to specify the accessibility of the inner class. In this situation, the modifiers have the following meanings:

public

A nested top-level or member class that is declared public is accessible from any class that can access the enclosing class.

protected

A nested top-level or member class that is declared protected is accessible from any class that is part of the same package as the enclosing class. Such an inner class is also accessible to any subclass of the enclosing class, regardless of whether or not the subclass is part of the same package.

private

A nested top-level or member class that is declared private is only accessible from its enclosing class and other classes declared within the enclosing class. In particular, an inner class that is declared private is not accessible in subclasses of its enclosing class.

If a nested top-level or member class is not declared with any of the access modifiers, the class has the default accessability. Default access is often called "friendly" access because it is similar to friendly access in C++. An inner class with default access is accessible in any class that is part of the same package as the enclosing class. However, a friendly inner class is not accessible to classes outside of the package of the enclosing class, even if the desired classes are subclasses of the enclosing class.

The keywords abstract, final, and static can also be used in the declaration of a nested top-level or member class. These modifiers have the following meanings:

abstract

If a nested top-level or member class is declared abstract, no instances of the class may be created. An inner class declared abstract may contain abstract methods; classes not declared abstract may not contain abstract methods and must override any abstract methods they inherit with methods that are not abstract. Furthermore, classes that implement an interface and are not declared abstract must contain or inherit methods that are not abstract, that have the same name, have the same number of parameters, and have corresponding parameter types as the methods declared in the interfaces that the class implements.

final

If a nested top-level or member class is declared final, it cannot be subclassed. In other words, it connot appear in the extends clause of another class.

static

An inner class that is declared with the static modifier is called a nested top-level class. A class can only be declared with the static modifier if its enclosing class is a top-level class (i.e., it is not declared within another class). The code within a nested top-level class cannot directly access non-static variables and methods of its enclosing class.

An inner class that is not declared with the static modifier is called a member class. The code within a member class can access all of the variables and methods of its enclosing class, including private variables and methods.

References Class Modifiers; Local class modifiers

Inner class members

The body of a nested top-level or member class cannot declare any static variables, static methods, static classes, or static initializers. Beyond those restrictions, the remainder of the declaration is the same as that for a top-level class declaration, which is described in Class Declarations.

References Class Declarations; Constructors; Instance Initializers; Methods; Nested Top-Level and Member Classes; Static Initializers; Variables