Hi Readers,

If you are beginner with Java then let me introduce your to constructor.

Constructor


class Animal()
{

 public Animal(){

  System.out.println("This is coming from Animal Class.");

 }

}
Constructor instantiate ( allocate memory and default values ) the defined instance variables while creating new object. There are certain rules comes with constructor.
  • constructor must have same name as class name.
  • constructor will run every time when we make new object. Like  new Animal(); In Animal class example you will see result statement "This is coming from Animal Class." will be printed.
  • constructor can be default, public, private and protected also. Many a times it is public so that all of us can create object.
  • constructor never returns anything. This is key difference between constructor and method.
class Animal()
{
 // Constructor
 public Animal(){
  System.out.println(" This is coming from Animal Class.");
 }

 // Method
 public void animal(){
  System.out.println(" This is coming from Animal Class. But i am a method");
 }
}
  • If you will not define any constructor in your class then JVM will create one for you when someone calls new object on your class.
  • If you have created constructor in your class then JVM will not create any default constructor for you.
  • Interface in java can not have constructor.
  • Abstract class can have constructor because we can have implementations (Non-Abstract) things in our abstract class.

Example

class Animal()
{
 // Constructor
 public Animal(){
  System.out.println(" This is coming from Animal Class.");
 }
 
 public static void main(String args[]){
  System.out.println(" This is coming from main method");
 }
}









Private Constructor





Having private constructor will not allow anyone outside of your class to create new object. This concept is used in  Singleton pattern or class.




class Animal()
{
 // Private Constructor
 private Animal(){
  System.out.println(" This is coming from Animal Class.");
 }
}











Constructor with Arguments







Argument-ed constructor are used to initialize instance variables in any class. Lets take an example here


class Dog(){

 private Collar collar;
 
 public Dog(Collar collar){
  this.collar = collar;
 }
 
}



In this example we want Dog object to have a collar. Every time someone need object of Dog, he can choose to supply object of Collar.



Note

In this case you JVM will not create default public constructor for you. So if you are inheriting Dog then you need to call this constructor by yourself.



super in Java





super is a keyword in java and it is used to call constructor of parent class.







Example 








class Dog(){

 private Collar collar;
 
 public Dog(Collar collar){
  this.collar = collar;
 }
 
}

class DomesticDog extends Dog(){
 
 public DomesticDog(){
  super(new Coller());
 }
 
}





In this example Domestic Dog is inheriting Dog and Dog has parameterized constructor. So for this super() needs to be invoked from constructor of DomesticDog class. You can pass the object of Collar.