Why is it mandatory to have private Constructor inside a Singleton class

Question

This is my singleton class for obtaining the database connection.

I have a question here: why it compulsory to have a private constructor inside a singleton class (as throughout my entire application I am calling this class only once) and as one instance of a class can be achieved using the static method?

Can this private constructor can be avoided, or is it mantadatory?

 public class ConnPoolFactory {
        private static DataSource dataSource;
        private static Connection connection;

        private ConnPoolFactory() {
            System.out.println(" ConnPoolFactory cons is called ");
        }

        public static synchronized Connection getConnection() throws SQLException {

            try {

                if (connection == null) {
                    Context initContext = new InitialContext();
                    Context envContext = (Context) initContext
                            .lookup("java:/comp/env");
                    dataSource = (DataSource) envContext.lookup("jdbc/Naresh");
                    connection = dataSource.getConnection();
                } else {
                    return connection;
                }

            } catch (NamingException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }

            return connection;

        }
    }

Answer 1

Otherwise everyone can create an instance of your class, so it's not a singleton any more. For a singleton by definition there can exist only one instance.

Answer 2

If there no such a private constructor, Java will provide a default public one for you. Then you are able to call this constructor multiple times to create several instances. Then it is not a singleton class any more.

Answer 3

If you don't need lazy initiation:

public class Singleton {
    private static final Singleton instance = new Singleton();

    // Private constructor prevents instantiation from other classes
    private Singleton() { }

    public static Singleton getInstance() {
            return instance;
    }
}

is the best way, because is thread safe.