Say a project contains several classes, each of which has a static initializer block. In what order do those blocks run? I know that within a class, such blocks are run in the order they appear in the code. I've read that it's the same across classes, but some sample code I wrote disagrees with that. I used this code:
package pkg;
public class LoadTest {
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println("START");
new Child();
System.out.println("END");
}
}
class Parent extends Grandparent {
// Instance init block
{
System.out.println("instance - parent");
}
// Constructor
public Parent() {
System.out.println("constructor - parent");
}
// Static init block
static {
System.out.println("static - parent");
}
}
class Grandparent {
// Static init block
static {
System.out.println("static - grandparent");
}
// Instance init block
{
System.out.println("instance - grandparent");
}
// Constructor
public Grandparent() {
System.out.println("constructor - grandparent");
}
}
class Child extends Parent {
// Constructor
public Child() {
System.out.println("constructor - child");
}
// Static init block
static {
System.out.println("static - child");
}
// Instance init block
{
System.out.println("instance - child");
}
}
and got this output:
START
static - grandparent
static - parent
static - child
instance - grandparent
constructor - grandparent
instance - parent
constructor - parent
instance - child
constructor - child
END
The obvious answer from that is that parents' blocks run before their children's, but that could just be a coincidence and doesn't help if two classes aren't in the same hierarchy.
EDIT:
I modified my example code by appending this to LoadTest.java:
class IAmAClassThatIsNeverUsed {
// Constructor
public IAmAClassThatIsNeverUsed() {
System.out.println("constructor - IAACTINU");
}
// Instance init block
{
System.out.println("instance - IAACTINU");
}
// Static init block
static {
System.out.println("static - IAACTINU");
}
}
As implied by the class name, I never referenced the new class anywhere. The new program produced the same output as the old one.