CODEWITHSUNDEEP
servletsinit
coder
coder

Reputation: 2267

Servlet constructor and init() method

Why do we need an init() method in servlet? Can't we use the constructor to initialization?

Upvotes: 8

Views: 4295

Answers (1)

Darron
Darron

Reputation: 21628

Because Servlet is an interface, not an abstract class. Constructor arguments cannot be specified on an interface, so the ServletContext needs to be specified on a normal method signature.

This allows the application server to know how to initialize any Servlet implementation properly.

Another solution would have been to require, but not enforce at compile time, a constructor taking ServletContext. The application server would then call the constructor via reflection. However, the designers of the Servlet specification did not chose this path.

Upvotes: 19

Related Questions