Question

I am learning android and came across an example like

public static class A extends IntentService {
    public A() {
        super("AppWidget$A");
    }
}

Can someone please tell me why do we have to call constructor of the superclass(IntentService) explicitly? and what does the parameter string signify?

Answer 1

It is used only for debugging. Here is a part of IntentService source code that uses this:

public abstract class IntentService extends Service {

    ...
    private String mName;
    ...

    /**
     * Creates an IntentService.  Invoked by your subclass's constructor.
     *
     * @param name Used to name the worker thread, important only for debugging.
     */
    public IntentService(String name) {
        super();
        mName = name;
    }

    ...

    @Override
    public void onCreate() {
        super.onCreate();
        HandlerThread thread = new HandlerThread("IntentService[" + mName + "]");
        thread.start();

        mServiceLooper = thread.getLooper();
        mServiceHandler = new ServiceHandler(mServiceLooper);
    }

    ...
}