Java : Class inheriting self

Question

I know this is pointless: I just find it funny and I want to inquire more about the mechanics of what happens when you create a class that inherits itself, resulting in a stack

Answer 1

Extending oneself generates an error of cyclic inheritance (which java doesn't allow). Your code sample does compile and is valid.

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Due to Vladimir Ivanov's persistence, I will fix my edit.

Your code throws a StackOverflowError because of the following.

Inside o = new Inside(0);

Since Inside extends Outside, Inside first calls the super() method implicitly (since you've not called it yourself). Outside() constructor initializes Inside o and the cycle runs again, until the stack is full and it overflow (there's too many Inside and Outside inside the heap stack).

Hope this helps especially Vladimir Ivanov.