That is how Java works. The constructors of the parent classes are called, all the way up the class hierarchy through Object
, before the child class's constructor is called.
Quoting from the docs:
With super()
, the superclass no-argument constructor is called. With super(parameter list)
, the superclass constructor with a matching parameter list is called.
Note: If a constructor does not explicitly invoke a superclass constructor, the Java compiler automatically inserts a call to the no-argument constructor of the superclass. If the super class does not have a no-argument constructor, you will get a compile-time error. Object
does have such a constructor, so if Object
is the only superclass, there is no problem.
If a subclass constructor invokes a constructor of its superclass, either explicitly or implicitly, you might think that there will be a whole chain of constructors called, all the way back to the constructor of Object
. In fact, this is the case. It is called constructor chaining, and you need to be aware of it when there is a long line of class descent.