The order in which initialisation blocks execute can be dificult to grasp so I present below a simple ordered list of when a block will execute.

1. Static blocks: run when the class is loaded.
   • The class is loaded before ANY code in the class is executed.
2. Instance blocks: run when an instance is created.
3. You can have as many blocks as you like of both static and instance types.
4. The order that they appear in the class determines the order in which they are executed.
5. Instance initialisation blocks are often used as places to put code that all constructors should execute.
6. If an exception is thrown (throw new Exception()) then it must be surrounded with a try catch, otherwise it will not compile.

It is also important to know how constructor interact with initialisation blocks. See the blog on Initialisation blocks and Constructors.