Information about Constructor

[Faraz Alig]

Hi Java Experts,

I read that "Constructors do not have a return type—not even void". BUT does it mean that constructors does not return any thing?
I believe that when a new instance is created the constructor call returns the handle/reference of that object. Is this true?

Please clarify on this key point.

Thanks,
Faraz

[Seetharaman Venkatasamy]

Faraz Alig wrote:
I read that "Constructors do not have a return type—not even void". BUT does it mean that constructors does not return any thing?

simply you can put *return;*

Faraz Alig wrote:
I believe that when a new instance is created the constructor call returns the handle/reference of that object. Is this true?

Constructors logically return an object, but that is take care by JVM.

[Kevan Ryan]

Faraz,

Basically, constructor is used to initialize instance variables within a class. No new instance variables are created. Rather, variables defined within the class can be set to a default value, such as 0 or 0.0 or something. No arguments are needed, and no 'return' statement is needed.

-Kevan

[Campbell Ritchie]

It might be more precise to say that constructors without arguments are permitted. If there are fields to be initialised, then arguments may be necessary to provide their values.

[Jesper de Jong]

Seetharaman Venkatasamy wrote:Constructors logically return an object, but that is take care by JVM.

I don't think you should see it like that.

Constructors don't return anything. Constructors look like methods, but they are not really methods. A constructor is a special block of code that is called to initialise a new object. The constructor does not return the object, it just initialises the object that the JVM has created.