Overview

The initialization plug-in helps ensure that no null values are accidentally dereferenced in the system.

Usage

Consider the following code:

@Initialize
public class Test {
  private Set set;

  public Test() {
    System.out.println( "Set is empty = " + getSet().isEmpty() );
  }

  protected Set createSet() {
    return new HashSet();
  }
}

The @Initialize annotation ensures that the first usage of a variable (via its private get accessor method) initializes the variable to a known value.