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javamethodsconstructoroverridingencapsulation

Java overridable call in constructor


I know it is a bad (security) practice to call overridable methods from an object constructor in Java. However, for example, if the constructor has to initialize some data, it seems reasonable to call the respective setter method so that I don't copy code. The setters are public and not final. Is there any standard way of dealing with this, like declaring private setter methods, that the public ones call? To illustrate, here is some code:

class A {
    private double x,y;
    private privateSetX(double x1) { x=x1; }
    private privateSetY(double y1) { y=y1; }
    public A() { privateSetX(0); privateSetY(0); }
    public setX(double x1) { privateSetX(x1); }
    public setY(double y1) { privateSetY(y1); }
};

Solution

  • If you really want to do this, create a secondary private setter method that is called by both the constructor and the public setter.