Static field used before initialization

Reports static variables that are read before initialization.

The inspection ignores equality checks with null.

Example:

  class Foo {
    public static int bar;

    public static void main(String[] args) {
      System.out.println(bar);
    }
  }

Note that this inspection uses a very conservative dataflow algorithm and may incorrectly report static variables as uninitialized. Variables reported as initialized will always be initialized.

Locating this inspection

By ID

Can be used to locate inspection in e.g. Qodana configuration files, where you can quickly enable or disable it, or adjust its settings.

StaticVariableUsedBeforeInitialization

Via Settings dialog

Path to the inspection settings via IntelliJ Platform IDE Settings dialog, when you need to adjust inspection settings directly from your IDE.

Settings or Preferences | Editor | Inspections | Java | Initialization

Use the Ignore primitive fields option to ignore uninitialized primitive fields.

Inspection ID: StaticVariableUninitializedUse

Inspection options

Here you can find the description of settings available for the Static field used before initialization inspection, and the reference of their default values.

Ignore primitive fields

Option ID:

m_ignorePrimitives

Default value:

Not selected

Suppressing Inspection

You can suppress this inspection by placing the following comment marker before the code fragment where you no longer want messages from this inspection to appear:

//noinspection StaticVariableUsedBeforeInitialization

More detailed instructions as well as other ways and options that you have can be found in the product documentation:

IntelliJ IDEA 2025.3

Inspection Details
By default bundled with:	IntelliJ IDEA 2025.3, Qodana for JVM 2025.3,

Last modified: 03 December 2025