Why do Java doesn't allow to initialize variables or constants outside classes?

Question

Example code:

public class MyClass {

    public static double globallyVisibleDbl = 42.69;
    public static final int globallyVisibleInt = 42;
    //blah blah rest of code

}

and there is double type variable and constant, both inside a class.

But when i'll try put those two outside class, for example before the class and just after import statements -- like there's allowed in C or C++ thanks to #define token [value] directive -- I get error:

import com.something.*;

public static double globallyVisibleDbl = 42.69;
public static final int globallyVisibleInt = 42;

public class MyClass {
   //some code
}

Why is so?

Answer 1

Because there is no "global scope" in java. All variables must be declared inside a method or a class. When you declare your variables above the class declaration, java does not relate it to the class just because it is in the same file.

Answer 2

The syntax of Java is largely derived from C++. Unlike C++, which combines the syntax for structured, generic, and object-oriented programming, Java was built almost exclusively as an object-oriented language. All code is written inside a class, and everything is an object, with the exception of the primitive data types (e.g. integers, floating-point numbers, boolean values, and characters), which are not classes for performance reasons.

@See Java_syntax