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From: Popping mad <rainbow@colition.gov>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer
Subject: hashtables syntax
Date: Sun, 15 May 2016 06:31:50 +0000 (UTC)
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This whole syntax is new and strange to me, seemingly illogical

   private static HashMap<String, Type[]> functions; // built-in
function types

    static { // initialize function types
        functions = new HashMap<>();
        functions.put("floor",      new Type[]{Type.FLOAT, Type.INT});
        functions.put("sqrt",       new Type[]{Type.FLOAT, Type.FLOAT});
        functions.put("log",        new Type[]{Type.FLOAT, Type.FLOAT,
Type.FLOAT});
        functions.put("random",     new Type[]{Type.FLOAT});
        functions.put("parseInt",   new Type[]{Type.STRING, Type.INT});
        functions.put("parseFloat", new Type[]{Type.STRING, Type.FLOAT});
        functions.put("readLine",   new Type[]{Type.STRING});
        functions.put("showInt",    new Type[]{Type.INT, Type.STRING});
        functions.put("showFloat",  new Type[]{Type.FLOAT, Type.STRING});
    }


If we are creating a private static Hashmap with template elements of a
String and and array of Types, then why do I have to call

functions = new HashMap<>();

and why nothing in the template.  And what does static do in this case?