Confusing contructor call

[Puneet Nayyar]

Hi,

I am confused regarding the output of the following code:

Class ABC{
ABC(Object o){
System.out.println("Object");
}
ABC(String s){
System.out.println("String");
}

public static void main(String[] args){
new ABC(null);
}
}

When i am running this class i am getting the output as
>String

Can anyone explain me why the constructor with argument as Object is getting neglected when i am calling the constructor with argument value as null?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Puneet

[Ganesh Kumar]

Hi puneet,

When you declare a variable as string with out intializing it, it will have "null" as a value in it.So when you pass null as a value string constructor will get invoked.Have you got cleared??

[Puneet Nayyar]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply Ganesh but still its unclear.
You are saying that When we declare a String like
String s
then we get a null String object
Same should be the case when i declare
Object o
it should also give a null object.

So the confusion is still there?

Thanks
Puneet

[Anupam Sinha]

Java would choose the closest match. That is, let say you have a String and StringBuffer constructor/method. Now both are not related to each other apart from the fact that both have a common parent/grandparent Object. So in this case when you pass null compiler would not be able to decide which invocation of the method/constructor is asked for. But in case you have a hierarchy, the one who is closest to the reference type is chosen.

[Raghavan Muthu]

Hello Puneet,

Its because of the closest-match found by the compiler. Please go through the following threads, they may help you.

What is the most specific method?

Passing null to the method argument - thread

HtH.

[Puneet Nayyar]

Thanks all!!
I got the concept.