Can a constructor return 'null'?

Question

Consider the following code snippit.
MyClass myObj = new MyClass();Is it safe to say that myObj IS NOT NULL?
Of course the constructor may have created a useless object, but the object reference itself (myObj) shouldn't be null. Correct?
Also, I realize that the constructor might throw an exception or something like that, but that's a different issue.

Answer 1

Of course the constructor may have created auseless
object, but the object reference itself (myObj)
shouldn't be null. Correct?Right, new will return a non-null object.<pb>
new returns a non-null reference to an object.
</pb>
Also, I realize that the constructor might throwan
exception or something like that, but that's a
different issue.I'm not sure what happens when the constructor throws
an exception, I've never written a constructor to
throw one. Write a simple program to test it. Create
a class that does nothing but throw an exception in
the constructor, then in main, try to instantiate it.
In the catch block, access the reference to see if
it's null.
try {
    Foo foo = new foo(); // ctor throws exception
catch (Exception exc) {
    System.out.println(foo); // won't compile, foo is not in scope
Foo foo;
try {
    foo = new foo(); // ctor throws exception
catch (Exception exc) {
    System.out.println(foo); // won't compile, foo might not have been set.
}If the c'tor throws an exception, it doesn't return a value, the assignment statement completes abrubtly, and nothing is assigned to the variable.