what does final mean in Groovy

Question

Hi,

If you run the following code in the Groovy console it prints "8"

class F {

  private final Integer val = 2

  def set(v) {val = v}

  def print() {println val}
}

def f = new F()
f.set(8)
f.print()

In Java this code wouldn't compile because you can't assign a final reference after the constructor has run. I know that for properties, final indicates that the property can't be changed outside the class, but what does it mean to mark a private field final?

Thanks, Don

Answer 1

It looks like this might be a Groovy bug:

• http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/GROOVY-1628
• http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/GROOVY-2752

I wouldn't think that val should be assignable after initialization.