Why to call super class methods from android activity life cycle methods?

Question

Why should we call super class onCreate() method from my activity's onCreate()? What is the reason behind calling super class methods from every life cycle method? Could you please clarify me ?

Answer 1

You can see what each method does by looking at the source. For example, you can see what happens in Activity.onCreate here (line #879):

    if (DEBUG_LIFECYCLE) Slog.v(TAG, "onCreate " + this + ": " + savedInstanceState);
    if (mLastNonConfigurationInstances != null) {
        mAllLoaderManagers = mLastNonConfigurationInstances.loaders;
    }
    if (mActivityInfo.parentActivityName != null) {
        if (mActionBar == null) {
            mEnableDefaultActionBarUp = true;
        } else {
            mActionBar.setDefaultDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true);
        }
    }
    if (savedInstanceState != null) {
        Parcelable p = savedInstanceState.getParcelable(FRAGMENTS_TAG);
        mFragments.restoreAllState(p, mLastNonConfigurationInstances != null
                ? mLastNonConfigurationInstances.fragments : null);
    }
    mFragments.dispatchCreate();
    getApplication().dispatchActivityCreated(this, savedInstanceState);
    mCalled = true;