Java Constructor Chaining

Question

Hi I am just learning about constructor chaining in Java and had some questions...

1. First of all could someone please explain when I would ever need to use this? Off the top of my head I seriously cannot think of a situation.

2. In this example, within the constructor with no arguments I call another constructor. How do I access this new "James Bond" object for future use?

   import java.util.*;
   
   class Employee
   {   
       private String name;
       private double salary;
   
       public Employee()
       {
           this("James Bond", 34000);
       }
   
       public Employee(String n, double s)
       {
           name = n;
           salary = s;
       }
   
       public String getName()
       {
           return name;
       }
   
       public double getSalary()
       {
           return salary;
       }
   
       public static void main(String[] args)
       {
           Employee a = new Employee();
       }
   }
   

Answer 1

Actually I believe the most common use of chained Constructors is when the Constructor does more than just setting the member variables.

static int numOfExamples = 0;
public Example(String name, int num)
{
    this.name = name;
    this.num = num;
    numOfExamples++;
    System.out.println("Constructor called.");
    Log.info("Constructor called");
}

public Example()
{
    this("James Bond",3);
}

That way we don't have to write the code for logging and incrementing the static variable twice, instead just chaining the constructors.