Question

I know that Java will let you do trickery with a variable’s type when initializing a class variable. Along the lines of:

SomeType foo = new SomeType() {
    {
        this.fooField = 12345;
    }
    @Override public void someMethod() {
        throw new ReallyWeirdException();
    }
};

which will create an instance variable foo where someMethod() has different semantics than in the usual SomeType, and where fooField is initialized to a value other than its normal default.

But what is the new Type() { ... } syntax called?

Answer 1

Anonymous Inner Class.

You define a class (class) inside your code (inner) that has no name (anonymous) but inherits from SomeType, then override some of its methods and properties.