Self Test Answer in K&B

[Alexsandra Carvalho]

Hello,
Exercise number 7 pg 269 of K&B.

The code is:

 
1. class Zippy {
2. String[] x;
3. int[] a [] = {{1,2}, {1}};
4. Object c = new long[4];
5. Object[] d = x;
6. }

The answer in book is "A - Compilation succeeds". But how if in line 5 the reference "d" is receiving "x" that was not inicialized?
Thanks,

[Abdullah Mamun]

It is not mandatory in Java to Initialize the instance variables before using. Only local variables have to be initialized before using.
In the example, all those variables are instance variable so compiler will not complain. But if you try that within a method, will result a compiler error.
[ July 22, 2007: Message edited by: Al Mamun ]

[marc weber]

To expand on what Al said, instance variables are initialized to default values unless explicitly valued. Object references have a default of null. So in the above example, x gets a default value of null, and this is assigned to d.

class Zippy {
  String[] x;
  int[] a [] = {{1,2}, {1}};
  Object c = new long[4];
  Object[] d = x;
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    Zippy zip = new Zippy();
    System.out.println("x is " + zip.x);
    System.out.println("d id " + zip.x);
  }
}

[Alexsandra Carvalho]

That's all right.
Thank you.