[GROOVY-7014] A Java compile time error results in a runtime exception in Groovy

• Type: Bug
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Minor
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 2.3.4, 2.4.0-rc-1
• Fix Version/s: 2.5.0-alpha-1
• Component/s: Static compilation
• Environment: Window 7
• Assignee: Paul King
• Reporter: Harminder Singh
• Created: 08/Aug/14 08:17
• Updated: 27/Aug/17 21:21
• Resolved: 17/Aug/16 14:21

Description

A Groovy class with CompileStatic annotation exhibit a different behavior than Java. The following code results in a compile time error in Java, but throws a runtime exception in Groovy.

@CompileStatic
class Base
{
  String getData() { return "ABCD" }
  Base() { this(getData()) } // Calling an instance method before the class is constructed

  Base(String arg) {}
}

@CompileStatic
public class GMain
{
  public static void main(String[] args)
  {
    Base b = new Base();
  }
}

Java produces:

Java Compiler error: Error:(11, 11) java: cannot reference this before supertype constructor has been called

Groovy produces:

Groovy Runtime Error details:
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ClassCastException: java.lang.Class cannot be cast to main.groovy.Base
	at main.groovy.Base.<init>(Base.groovy:9)
	at main.groovy.Derived.<init>(Derived.groovy)
	at main.groovy.GMain.main(Base.groovy:18)
	at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
        ......

Issue Links

• relates to: GROOVY-8303 VerifyError for nested class this call to static method
• links to: GitHub Pull Request #381