Initialize final variable in constructor

Question

I'm trying to initialize a private final variable in the constructor of my class. I found this thread explaining how to do it (Initialize a static final field in the constructor), but eclipse doesn't seem to like my code. I was wondering if someone could shed some light on what I might be doing wrong.

public class A {
  final private String myString;

  public A() {
    myString = "content";
  }
}

With this code I'm getting:

The blank final field myString may not have been initialized

This seems pretty dang similar to the examples in the thread I linked to.

Thank you for the help!

what error does eclipse give? I cut and pasted your example into IntelliJ, and it was happy. — Chris K
– Chris K, Commented Jul 2, 2014 at 16:25
It gives the second code block in my post above. I'm using 4.4.0 and Java 7 but the actual error when I run it is this: Exception in thread "main" java.lang.Error: Unresolved compilation problem: The blank final field myString may not have been initialized at package.<init>(A.java:31) at package.Test.main(Test.java:5)initialized — user3780616
– user3780616, Commented Jul 2, 2014 at 16:27
As an aside, I would suggest using the convention of upper-case with underscores for naming constants LIKE_THIS. — Tripp Kinetics
– Tripp Kinetics, Commented Jul 2, 2014 at 16:29
Does it work if you simply call javac on the file? It's a longshot. — Tripp Kinetics
– Tripp Kinetics, Commented Jul 2, 2014 at 16:29
@user3780616 I doubt that the code above produces this error. Please provide the full example (your class A does not have a line #31) — isnot2bad
– isnot2bad, Commented Jul 2, 2014 at 16:32

user1930502 · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-02 16:36:34Z

5

Your code is perfectly valid. This is probably caused by:

Bad IDE settings
Damaged or alternative javac compiler.

Re-download your IDE, you probably want to download the latest version of it and perform a clean install. You can also try to download and install JDK again (preferably latest version).

Just a little tip. In Java, there is a convention that variable visibility modifier comes first. So instead of final private, learn to write private final.

answered Jul 2, 2014 at 16:36

user1930502

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1 Comment

user3780616 Over a year ago

Reinstalled JDK and Eclipse and everything works. Not sure why, but hey, it works :) Thanks for the help everybody!

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