Why do this() and super() have to be the first statement in a constructor?

Question

Java requires that if you call this() or super() in a constructor, it must be the first statement. Why?

For example:

public class MyClass {
    publi         


        

Answer 1

You can use anonymous initializer blocks to initialize fields in the child before calling it's constructor. This example will demonstrate :

public class Test {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        new Child();
    }
}

class Parent {
    public Parent() {
        System.out.println("In parent");
    }
}

class Child extends Parent {

    {
        System.out.println("In initializer");
    }

    public Child() {
        super();
        System.out.println("In child");
    }
}

This will output :

In parent
In initializer
In child