Should I instantiate instance variables on declaration or in the constructor?

Question

Is there any advantage for either approach?

Example 1:

class A {
    B b = new B();
}

Example 2:

class A {
    B b;         


        

Answer 1

The second option is preferable as allows to use different logic in ctors for class instantiation and use ctors chaining. E.g.

class A {
    int b;

    // secondary ctor
    A(String b) {
         this(Integer.valueOf(b));
    }

    // primary ctor
    A(int b) {
         this.b = b;
    }
}

So the second options is more flexible.