Chapter 2 -- To Do List -- when to use super.onCreate(icicle);?

SteveOliverC · December 30th, 2008, 03:36 PM

Eclipse sets up a new Android project with onCreate and includes super.onCreate(savedInstance) as the first line. I see this in the sample code I downloaded, but don't see it on page 40 of the book.

Without this line, the debugger throws a "source not found" error.

My question is, Where is onCreate that we are overriding? and why do we need to do this (was this supposed to be included in page 40)?

thanks.

dflipb · December 30th, 2008, 07:37 PM

I'm getting the same error. What is the problem?

Reto · December 31st, 2008, 03:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SteveOliverC

My question is, Where is onCreate that we are overriding? and why do we need to do this (was this supposed to be included in page 40)?

Apologies! Yes, it looks like the super.onCreate(icicle) line somehow got dropped from the text on page 40 -- you always need to call super.OnCreate when overriding the onCreate method of an Activity. It should be the first thing called in the overriding method.

The correct technique for overriding onCreate is shown on page 66, or as you point out, in the downloadable code samples.

Sorry again for the confusion, not sure how that snuck through.

SteveOliverC · December 31st, 2008, 11:27 AM

No worries! and thanks for the quick reply and clarification. I'm really enjoying the book and I am very impressed with the quality (especially considering how quickly the book came to market).

dflipb · December 31st, 2008, 11:58 AM

Just one more question about icicle. What is icicle and why do I change savedInstance to icicle?

I also agree this book is fantastic. Thank you.

Reto · January 1st, 2009, 01:49 PM

'icicle' is what earlier versions of the SDK used to name the Bundle objects that got passed in to the onCreate method. The new SDK defaults the name to savedInstanceState. I've used them interchangeably, but for consistency it's probably easiest to stick with savedInstanceStatein your own projects.

It's great to hear you guys are finding the book useful, thanks for the kind words.

eags · January 5th, 2009, 10:42 PM

The eclipse plugin automatically inserted that line for me and I guess I didn't even notice since I had already seen it in other examples. I was wondering about the random use of the term icicle however so thanks for the clarification.