Constructor is a special method used to initialize objects, like a factory that takes in raw materials (parameters) and outputs a shiny new instance. It's the ultimate "new phone who dis" of the programming world - if you don't give it what it needs upfront, good luck getting a call back later.

How to use it in a sentence

• "I tried to use the Car class, but the constructor yelled at me like an angry manager because I forgot to pass in the numWheels parameter."

• "In an act of defiance against modern best practices, Bob refused to put any initialization logic in the constructor and instead relied on 47 different setter methods to configure his KafkaConsumerFactory class."

If you actually want to learn more...

• Constructor Initialization by Martin Fowler dives deeper into the benefits of constructor initialization for ensuring well-formed objects that are ready to use right away. He contrasts this with the setter initialization approach and discusses how constructor bloat can indicate code smells and the need for refactoring.

• Refactoring Module Dependencies explores how to manage complexity by splitting programs into modules and refactoring dependencies. It touches on patterns like Service Locator and Dependency Injection which are often used in conjunction with constructor initialization.

• Command Oriented Interface looks at an alternative to traditional procedural interfaces where constructors and methods are replaced with command classes. This approach can provide benefits like better representability and flexibility for handling cross-cutting concerns.

Note: the Developer Dictionary is in Beta. Please direct feedback to skye@statsig.com.