Using Application context everywhere?

Question

In an Android app, is there anything wrong with the following approach:

public class MyApp extends android.app.Application {

    private static MyApp instan         


        

Answer 1

Some people have asked: how can the singleton return a null pointer? I'm answering that question. (I cannot answer in a comment because I need to post code.)

It may return null in between two events: (1) the class is loaded, and (2) the object of this class is created. Here's an example:

class X {
    static X xinstance;
    static Y yinstance = Y.yinstance;
    X() {xinstance=this;}
}
class Y {
    static X xinstance = X.xinstance;
    static Y yinstance;
    Y() {yinstance=this;}
}

public class A {
    public static void main(String[] p) {
    X x = new X();
    Y y = new Y();
    System.out.println("x:"+X.xinstance+" y:"+Y.yinstance);
    System.out.println("x:"+Y.xinstance+" y:"+X.yinstance);
    }
}

Let's run the code:

$ javac A.java 
$ java A
x:X@a63599 y:Y@9036e
x:null y:null

The second line shows that Y.xinstance and X.yinstance are null; they are null because the variables X.xinstance ans Y.yinstance were read when they were null.

Can this be fixed? Yes,

class X {
    static Y y = Y.getInstance();
    static X theinstance;
    static X getInstance() {if(theinstance==null) {theinstance = new X();} return theinstance;}
}
class Y {
    static X x = X.getInstance();
    static Y theinstance;
    static Y getInstance() {if(theinstance==null) {theinstance = new Y();} return theinstance;}
}

public class A {
    public static void main(String[] p) {
    System.out.println("x:"+X.getInstance()+" y:"+Y.getInstance());
    System.out.println("x:"+Y.x+" y:"+X.y);
    }
}

and this code shows no anomaly:

$ javac A.java 
$ java A
x:X@1c059f6 y:Y@152506e
x:X@1c059f6 y:Y@152506e

BUT this is not an option for the Android Application object: the programmer does not control the time when it is created.

Once again: the difference between the first example and the second one is that the second example creates an instance if the static pointer is null. But a programmer cannot create the Android application object before the system decides to do it.

UPDATE

One more puzzling example where initialized static fields happen to be null.

Main.java:

enum MyEnum {
    FIRST,SECOND;
    private static String prefix="<", suffix=">";
    String myName;
    MyEnum() {
        myName = makeMyName();
    }
    String makeMyName() {
        return prefix + name() + suffix;
    }
    String getMyName() {
        return myName;
    }
}
public class Main {
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        System.out.println("first: "+MyEnum.FIRST+" second: "+MyEnum.SECOND);
        System.out.println("first: "+MyEnum.FIRST.makeMyName()+" second: "+MyEnum.SECOND.makeMyName());
        System.out.println("first: "+MyEnum.FIRST.getMyName()+" second: "+MyEnum.SECOND.getMyName());
    }
}

And you get:

$ javac Main.java
$ java Main
first: FIRST second: SECOND
first:  second: 
first: nullFIRSTnull second: nullSECONDnull

Note that you cannot move the static variable declaration one line upper, the code will not compile.