Static block compilation

[Abubacker Siddik]

Hi All,

I stumbled across the following code,

public class FinalChk{
     static{
         s=4;
       }
  
     final static int s;

     public static void main(String args[])
      {       
        System.out.println(s);
      }
}

My doubt is maybe childish but i am curious. How a static block is compiled and how come the above code is executed perfectly well?

Thanks in Advance,
Abu.A

[Rob Spoor]

Moving to Beginning Java.

[Campbell Ritchie]

That block is called a static initializer. You will find details in the Java™ Language Specification, but it is by no means easy to read.

Please ask again if you don't understand it.

[Abubacker Siddik]

My doubt is to know how a static block assigns a variable even before the variable is declared. That's what i intend to ask. Because i thought this would give compile time error. To my wonder it was successfully compiled. Please show me some suggestions.

[David Newton]

He did. Static initializers are necessarily run after the class is loaded.

[Siva Masilamani]

Visit this link to know how java handles forward reference.

Forward reference