Illegal and legal forward reference in static block

Asked Dec 04 '15 at 15:32

Active Dec 04 '15 at 15:32

Viewed 30 times

I understand that this code doesn't compile because of an illegal forward reference.

public class StaticInitializerTest {
    static{
        staticVar++;
    }
    static int staticVar = 0;
}

But I don't understand why there is no illegal forward reference in this code.

public class StaticInitializerTest {
    static{
        staticVar = 12;
    }
    static int staticVar = 0;
}

P.S.: I'm using OpenJDK 1.8.0_66-b17

asked Dec 04 '15 at 15:32

Ortomala Lokni

Maybe because there is no guarantee that staticVar has been initialized. – ryuu9187 Dec 04 '15 at 15:36
See https://docs.oracle.com/javase/specs/jls/se8/html/jls-8.html#jls-8.3.3. – M A Dec 04 '15 at 15:37
I think the key part of the spec is "The use is not on the left hand side of an assignment." – resueman Dec 04 '15 at 15:39

0 Answers0