Difference between static block and assigning static in class?

Question

Is there any difference between following two initializations of static variables:

class Class1 {    
    private static Var var;

    static {
        var = getSingletonVar();
    }  
}

---

class Class2 {
    private static var = getSingletonVar;
}

Are these two different ways of initializing a static variable functionally the same?

Answer 1

Yes, its functionally the same.

From Java doc

There is an alternative to static blocks — you can write a private static method:

class Whatever {
    public static varType myVar = initializeClassVariable();

    private static varType initializeClassVariable() {

        // initialization code goes here
    }
}

The advantage of private static methods is that they can be reused later if you need to reinitialize the class variable.

Answer 2

The result will be same.

In both the cases static variable will get initialized with class loading.

static methods and static class blocks are two different things. static methods need to be called where as static class block automatically gets executed with class loading.