Understanding constructors

How constructors differ from methods

By Robert Nielsen, JavaWorld.com, 10/13/00

Purpose and function

Constructors have one purpose in life: to create an instance of a class. This can also be called creating an object, as in:

Platypus p1 = new Platypus();

The purpose of methods, by contrast, is much more general. A method's basic function is to execute Java code.

Signature differences

Constructors and methods differ in three aspects of the signature: modifiers, return type, and name. Like methods, constructors can have any of the access modifiers: public, protected, private, or none (often called package or friendly). Unlike methods, constructors can take only access modifiers. Therefore, constructors cannot be abstract, final, native, static, or synchronized.

The return types are very different too. Methods can have any valid return type, or no return type, in which case the return type is given as void. Constructors have no return type, not even void.

Finally, in terms of the signature, methods and constructors have different names. Constructors have the same name as their class; by convention, methods use names other than the class name. If the Java program follows normal conventions, methods will start with a lowercase letter, constructors with an uppercase letter. Also, constructor names are usually nouns because class names are usually nouns; method names usually indicate actions.

The use of "this"

Constructors and methods use the keyword this quite differently. A method uses this to refer to the instance of the class that is executing the method. Static methods do not use this; they do not belong to a class instance, so this would have nothing to reference. Static methods belong to the class as a whole, rather than to an instance. Constructors use this to refer to another constructor in the same class with a different parameter list. Study the following code:

public class Platypus {
       String name;
       Platypus(String input) {
               name = input;
       }
       Platypus() {
               this("John/Mary Doe");
       }
       public static void main(String args[]) {
               Platypus p1 = new Platypus("digger");
               Platypus p2 = new Platypus();
       }
}

In the code, there are two constructors. The first takes a String input to name the instance. The second, taking no parameters, calls the first constructor by the default name "John/Mary Doe".

If a constructor uses this, it must be in the constructor's first line; ignoring this rule will cause the compiler to object.

The use of "super"

Methods and constructors both use super to refer to a superclass, but in different ways. Methods use super to execute an overridden method in the superclass, as the following example illustrates: