Question

In Scala, we can write

object Foo { def bar = {} }

How is this implemented by the compiler? I am able to call Foo.bar(); from Java
but new Foo(); from Java gives the error cannot find symbol symbol: constructor Foo()

• Does the JVM support singletons natively?
• Is it possible to have a class in Java that does not have a constructor?

Note: here is the code output by scalac -print

package <empty> {
  final class Foo extends java.lang.Object with ScalaObject {
    def bar(): Unit = ();
    def this(): object Foo = {
      Foo.super.this();
      ()
    }
  }
}

Answer 1

Support for singletons is not on a language level, but the language provides enough facilities to create them without any trouble.

Consider the following code:

public class Singleton {
    private static final Singleton instance = new Singleton();

    // Private constructor prevents instantiation from other classes
    private Singleton() {}

    public static Singleton getInstance() {
        return instance;
    }
}

This is an example from Wikipedia, which explains how a singleton can be made. An instance is kept in a private field, constructor is inaccessible outside the class, the method returns this single instance.

As for constructors: every class by default has a so-called default constructor which takes no arguments and simply calls the no-args constructor of the superclass. If the superclass doesn’t have any accessible constructor without arguments, you will have to write an explicit constructor.

So a class must have a constructor, but you don’t have to write it if the superclass has a no-args constructor.