Correlation between constructors in Java and __init__ function in Python

Question

I was currently learning more about constructors in Java, and I found out that just like the __init__ function in Python, constructors are functions that are called as soon as we instantiate an object of a class.

So, are both the concepts one and the same, abstractly?

Answer 1

These are very similar things, however with at least one big difference.

• constructor is called before/while the object is being constructed
• __init__ is called after the object has been constructed, so you have a valid reference to it (called self)