Forward Referencing

[M Bhalli]

what will be the output of this program, and why there is no error of forward referencing in this case?
public class AQuestion
{
private int i = giveMeJ();
private int j = 10;
private int giveMeJ()
{
return j;
}
public static void main(String args[])
{
System.out.println((new AQuestion()).i);
}
}
Thanks!!

[Terry McKee]

The output is 0. I believe the reason for this is because the variable i and variable j are established in memory and set to 0 first. Therefore, at the time the statement

private int j = giveMeJ();

is executed, j is 0 not 10. It is only after this statement that j is assigned 10. If you used the follwing code instead:

public class AQuestion
{
private int i = j;
private int j = 10;
private int giveMeJ()
{
return j;
}
public static void main(String args[])
{
System.out.println((new AQuestion()).i);
}
}

you would get a forward looking reference error.
[ October 10, 2003: Message edited by: Terry McKee ]

[M Bhalli]

Thank you terry!!!