Any way to _not_ call superclass constructor in Java?

I开发者_运维问答f I have a class:

class A {
   public A() { }
}

and another

class B extends A {
   public B() { }
}

is there any way to get B.B() not to call A.A()?

There is absolutely no way to do this in Java; it would break the language specification.

JLS 12 Execution / 12.5 Creation of New Class Instances

Just before a reference to the newly created object is returned as the result, the indicated constructor is processed to initialize the new object using the following procedure:

1. Assign the arguments for the constructor [...]
2. If this constructor begins with an explicit constructor invocation of another constructor in the same class (using this), then [...]
3. This constructor does not begin with an explicit constructor invocation of another constructor in the same class (using this). If this constructor is for a class other than Object, then this constructor will begin with an explicit or implicit invocation of a superclass constructor (using super).
4. Execute the instance initializers and instance variable initializers for this class [...]
5. Execute the rest of the body of this constructor [...]

The closest you can achieve to the desired behaviour is to delegate initialisation normally performed in the constructor to a template method, which you then override in your subclass implementation. For example:

public class A {
  protected Writer writer;

  public A() {
    init();
  }

  protected void init() {
    writer = new FileWriter(new File("foo.txt"));
  }
}

public class B extends A {
  protected void init() {
    writer = new PaperbackWriter();
  }
}

However, as other people have noted this can typically indicate a problem with your design and I typically prefer the composition approach in this scenario; for example in the above code you could define the constructor to accept a Writer implementation as a parameter.

Java deserialisation doesn't call the constructor, but it seems that it is based on some internal JVM tricks.

However, there is a framework that allows you to do that in a portable manner: Objenesis (http://www.theserverside.com/discussions/thread/44297.html)

I've seen this recently in Spring, when using CGLIB proxies, Spring creates two class instances, but the constructor is called only once: https://stackoverflow.com/a/11583641/2557118

This behavior is added in Spring 4:

CGLIB-based proxy classes no longer require a default constructor. Support is provided via the objenesis library which is repackaged inline and distributed as part of the Spring Framework. With this strategy, no constructor at all is being invoked for proxy instances anymore.

The possibility is that you can call the super class constructor of your choice. That is possible by calling the super class constructor explicitly as :

super(para_1, para_2,........);

class BaseA {
    BaseA(){
        System.out.println("This is BaseA");
    }
    BaseA(int a){
        System.out.println("This is BaseA a");
    }


}

class A extends BaseA {

    A(){
        super(5);
        System.out.println("This is A");
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        A obj=new A();

    }
}

Output will be:
This is BaseA a
This is A

No and if you could, your derived object wouldn't really be the object it's deriving from now would it? The is-a principle would be violated. So if you really need it, then polymorphism isn't what you're after.

Every superclass needs to be constructed and there is no other way then calling a constructor.

I think the only way to do it is messing up with the byte-code.
I'm not sure if the Classloader or the JVM checks if super() is being called, but, as Bozho wrote, you probably would end with inconsistent objects when doing so.

Nope - you cannot do it and why would you want to do it anyway? That would mess up your object model.

Anyways - i believe if you still want to do it and then you would have to manipulate the generated byte code.... there are a couple of libraries available that make it easy to instrument the byte code.

Strongly suggest against doing it...

Every object in java is a subclass of Object (object with a capital 'O'). when you create an object of a subclass the super class constructor is invoked. Even if your class is not inhereting anyother class, implicitly it is inheriting Object, so the Object constructor has to be called. So super() is invoked for this purpose.

Assuming you mean

class B extends A {
     public B() { }
}

then sure you can

class B extends A {
     public B() {
         this(abort());
     }
     private B(Void dummy) {
         /* super(); */
     }
     private static Void abort() {
         throw null;
     }
}

Not very useful. The interface [not Java keyword] to class A says that you need to run its constructor in order to construct it, not unreasonably. The exception is that serialisable classes are constructed without calling the constructors of the serialisable classes.

1. As pointed out by another poster, B doesn't extend A, so it won't call A's constructor anyways.

2. There is no way to do this in Java.

3. You can probably accomplish equivalently what you want to do as follows:

a) in each class of your hierarchy, include a constructor with a unique signature that calls the superclass's constructor with its arguments. For example, declare a class "Noop" and a constructor that takes that as an argument:

public class NoOp {
}

public class class1 {
    class1() {
        System.out.println("class1() called");
    }
    class1(String x, String y) {
        System.out.println("class1(String, String) called");
}
    class1(NoOp x) {
        System.out.println("class1(NoOp) called");
    }
}

public class class2 extends class1 {
    class2() {
        System.out.println("class2() called");
    }
    class2(String x, String y) {
        System.out.println("class2(String, String) called");
}
    class2(NoOp x) {
        super(x);
        System.out.println("class2(NoOp) called");
    }
}

public class class3 extends class2 {
    class3() {
        System.out.println("class3() called");
    }
    class3(String x, String y) {
        super(new NoOp());
        System.out.println("class3(String, String) called");
    }
    class3(NoOp x) {
        super(x);
        System.out.println("class3(NoOp) called");
    }
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        class3 x = new class3("hello", "world");
    }
}

If you run this you will get the output

class1(NoOp) called
class2(NoOp) called
class3(String, String) called

So, effectively you have created a class3 constructor that only calls constructors that don't do anything.

I had a similar requirement where I needed my child class NOT to go through the super class' constructor, and I wanted the rest of the benefits of the super class. Since super class is also mine, here's what I did.

class SuperClass {
    protected SuperClass() {
        init();
    }

    // Added for classes (like ChildClassNew) who do not want the init to be invoked.
    protected SuperClass(boolean doInit) {
        if (doInit)
            init();
    }

    //
}

class ChildClass1 extends SuperClass {
    ChildClass1() {
        // This calls default constructor of super class even without calling super() explicitly.
        // ...
    }
    // ....
}

class ChildClass2 extends SuperClass {
    ChildClass2() {
        // This calls default constructor of super class even without calling super() explicitly.
        // ...
    }
    // ....
}

class ChildClassNew extends SuperClass {
    ChildClassNew() {
        /*
         * This is where I didn't want the super class' constructor to 
         * be invoked, because I didn't want the SuperClass' init() to be invoked.
         * So I added overloaded the SuperClass' constructor where it diesn;t call init().
         * And call the overloaded SuperClass' constructor from this new ChildClassNew.
         */
        super(false);
        // 
        // ...
    }
    // ....
}