Question

Suppose I have a static variable in a class:

class Example {
    public static var one:One = new One;
}

Will ‘one’ being instanciated at my program startup (even if I never use it), or just at the first time I use it?

Answer 1

I guess if you ask the question, it’s because you only want the object to be created if you use it. In that case, what you should do is implement lazy creation of the object. Something like that would work:

class Example {

    private static var one_:One = null;

    public static function get one():One {
        if (!one_) one_ = new One();
        return one_;
    }

    // If the variable is not read-only, you also need a setter:
    public static function set one(v:One):void {
        one_ = v;
    }

}

Now you are sure that one will only be created if you directly refers to it using Example.one in your code.