In Java, why have a code block with no keywords, just curly brackets

Question

I\'m re-factoring some inherited code, but was stumped by the design decision and can\'t figure out the proper terms to google this. My predecessor would use blocks like thi

Answer 1

Your predecessor was still learning.

That's the best explanation you're likely to get. Perhaps at one point in time there was a need to have the code split up like this. It's hard to say. The code should certainly be written like this instead:

public class ChildClass extends ParentClass {
    public ChildClass() {
        inheritedVar = "someVal";
    }
    // rest of code
}

As for the initializer block, its purpose has been given by the other answers here. I threw my answer in as an attempt to answer the "why", which you requested. Unfortunately, for the real answer, you would have to ask your predecessor.