Java static variable is assigned null value [duplicate]

Question

Below is my code, wondering why null is printed instead of Hello World!!!

public class MyClass {

    static String s1 = getMyValue();
    static String s2 = "Hello World!!!";

    private static String getMyValue() {
        return s2;
    }

    public static void main(String args[]) {
        System.out.print(s1);  //outputs: null
    }
}

Initialized by order of declaration. So s1 gets assigned to getMyValue() which returns null since s2 hasn't been assigned yet. — Tunaki
– Tunaki, Commented Apr 28, 2016 at 15:28
I haven't touched Java in a long time but don't you need to reference inner function using this.getMyValue() seemed like a common usage in C#, PHP and as far as I recall Java. May be something has changed. Anyone can shed some light onto this? Actually, class properties to be assigned using another method would usually be performed within a constructor. — dchayka
– dchayka, Commented Apr 28, 2016 at 15:58

FredK · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-28 15:25:23Z

1

Run this in a debugger and you wil see that s1=getMyValue() is executed BEFORE s2 is set to "Hello World!!!"..

answered Apr 28, 2016 at 15:25

FredK

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2 Comments

msapkal Over a year ago

Right, however why doesn't it give error on return s2, since it didn't find s2 and s2 is defined after s1.

Sotirios Delimanolis Over a year ago

@MaheshSapkal The compiler won't parse every single possible path to figure out who called getMyValue and if it's defined before whatever value is used within the method.

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