Constructor with super(value) as first line - 'value' variable won't change!?

[Eddie Shakarchi]

Hi guys. But of a tricky one to explain this!
I have a class called SingleDelayEffect, which has a constructor:

public SingleDelayEffect(int forwardMemSize, int feedback, float delayInMs, boolean chunked, double sampleRate)
    {
        super(forwardMemSize);
        setFeedback(feedback);
        setDelayOffset(delayOffset);
        setChunked(chunked);
        samplingFrequency = sampleRate;
}

This gets the values from a class called SingleDelay. However SingleDelayEffect extends a class called AudioEffect. You can see here that i have used super(value) to add the value of 'fowardMemSize' to the contructor of AudioEffect. This is fine, but what if the forwardMemSize changes? Ordinarily (for a variable like 'feedback')i can juse ues a method like:

public void setFeedback(int feed){
feedbackFactor = (int)(feed / 100);
}

to get the value of feedback from the SingleDelay class if this value changes. But because the value of forwardMemSize is calculated in SingleDelay, and passed over, it won't change. In the SingleDelay class, i'm making a new object each time:

    SingleDelayEffect single = null;
if (single==null){
           single = new SingleDelayEffect(delayOffset, feedback, delayInMs, chunked, sampleRate);
        }

I know the super(); call has to be the first line of the constructor so what do i do it this value varies
I know i made a pigs ear of explaing this so if any more info is needed i can reply straight away
Thank you!
[ April 06, 2004: Message edited by: Eddie Shakarchi ]

[Eddie Shakarchi]

I should add that in fact i want super(forwardMemSize) to actually be whatever is set here:

public void setDelayOffset(float offset){
delaySamples = (int)((offset * samplingFrequency) / 1000);
}

[Eddie Shakarchi]

no one?
i think it's impossible, right?

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

The short answer (and I'm not sure why I need to explain this again, as this seems to me to be the identical question I've already answered) is to give the appropriate class (here, it's AudioEffect) a setXXX method, which can then be called from or on instances of SingleDelayEffect (the method will be inherited by this class.)

[Tony Morris]

You are violating one of The Rules(TM).
Calling an overridable method on a 'this' (implied or not) reference from a constructor.
An overrideable method is defined as one that is non-private, non-static, non-final, a member of a non-final class with at least one non-private constructor.