Java declaring private member variables

Question

I was studying in a book and here is the example:

public class SimpleGeometricObject {
private String color = "white";
...

I've always been taught that we can't give a value to a member variable if its not in a constructor or in a setter. This example from the book, is it a good example? Can we do that? Is that a style problem?

Thanks

"I've always been taught that we can't give a value to a member variable if its not in a constructor or in a setter." . that's absolutely false. — Ousmane D., Mar 14 '17 at 02:09
Where on earth did you learn or were you 'taught' this nonsense? — user207421, Mar 14 '17 at 02:12
Technically, the assignment is *copied* into **every** constructor (or the *default* constructor if you don't provide one). — Elliott Frisch, Mar 14 '17 at 02:12
I see... I learned coding using C++, and my professor absolutely told us not to do this way. — user258813, Mar 14 '17 at 02:34
Did your professor say why? It seems to me like a bizarre thing for them to teach you. — Dawood ibn Kareem, Mar 14 '17 at 02:40
I'm learning java on my own. The only formal school training was in c++ that's why I was confused. — user258813, Mar 15 '17 at 16:06

score 0 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:17

0

You can initialize the variable either inside the constructor or outside, both have their benefits and drawbacks. There are a few reasons as explained in the following threads:

edited May 23 '17 at 12:17

Community

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answered Mar 14 '17 at 02:11

dat3450

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You can *initialize* the variable either inside or outside the constructor. – user207421 Mar 14 '17 at 02:13
Yeah, I've fixed that. – dat3450 Mar 14 '17 at 02:32

Java declaring private member variables

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