Cannot access field from static context when passing value to superconstructor

Question

I got a very weird compile-time error:

class Super {
    Super(int[] array) {

    }
}

class Sub extends Super {
    private final int number = 1;

    Sub() {
        super(new int[] { number }); //error
    }
}

The error I get is

Cannot access field from static context

My question

Where is the static context? It doesn't seem as if static would even play a role here.

I stumbled across this attempting to answer someone else's question; found the error I got baffling. Can someone explain where the static context is?

Answer 1

Your field number should be static, so that you can use it in constructor call. Otherwise you'll get cannot reference number before supertype constructor has been called because the field is not accessible before you call the constructor of the parent class.

So your code should look like:

class Super {
    Super(int[] array) {

    }
}

class Sub extends Super {
    private static final int number = 1;
    Sub() {
        super(new int[] { number }); //error
    }
}

Answer 2

From JLS 8.8.7

An explicit constructor invocation statement in a constructor body may not refer to any instance variables or instance methods or inner classes declared in this class or any superclass, or use this or super in any expression; otherwise, a compile-time error occurs.

At the time of the super call an instance of Sub will not yet exist