When/how do i initialize static members of an abstract class ? (no lazy loading)

Question

I have an abstract class that is somewhat like a View from Android. I create a lot of classes that extend it to draw different stuff. Now i would like all those classes to share the same Paints so that colors match and so on.

My ideas would be

• pass some context or windowmetrics to every single constructor, but that feels silly as i only need it once.

• i could add a static method init() to the abstract class, but i try to avoid public static methods.

• create a subclass with the single purpose to set the static members of the superclass and also null them at the end, something like a remote control to the superclass' static stuff.

im just not sure what risks there are or if there are even simpler ways to do it.

Edit: to init the static members i need a context (for those not familiar with android) and that context needs to be passed to that class, so no init in static blocks etc

Answer 1

Or just add a static block and initialize them there:

public abstract class Foo {
    public static final int DEFAULT_PAINTS_SIZE = 5;
    public static Paint [] paints;

    static {
        paints = new Paints[DEFAULT_PAINTS_SIZE];
        // initialize the values somehow.
    }
}

Answer 2

You can initialize them directly:

public class MyClass {
    private static MyStatic myStaticObject = new MyStatic();
}

or in a static initializer block:

public class MyClass {
    private static MyStatic myStaticObject;
    static {
        //something = stuff
        myStaticObject = new MyStatic(something);
        //more stuff
    }
}