Initialization

• No variables in Java have undefined state
  • Arithmetic variables initialized to 0
  • Boolean variables initialized to false
  • Char variables initialized to the null character '\u0000'
  • Array/class references initialized to null
• Use constructor method to provide explicit initial values
  • Has same name as class name
  • May have zero or more arguments
  • May be overloaded to allow different initialization types
  • Constructor is called when an object is allocated (via new)
  • Default constructor (one with no arguments) called if no arguments supplied to new
  • Otherwise, appropriate constructor called based on type and number of arguments