Recall that object classes are those that can create instance objects. When these instances require initialization, you'll want to define an INIT method to set a particular starting value or initiate some startup processing. REXX will look for an INIT method whenever a new object is created; if INIT is there, REXX runs it.
The purpose of initialization is to ensure that the variable is set correctly before using it in an operation. If an INIT method is defined, REXX runs it after creating the instance. Any initialization arguments specified on the NEW or ENHANCED message are passed to the INIT method, which may use them to set the initial state of object variables.
If an instance has more than one INIT method (for example, INIT is defined in multiple classes), each INIT method must forward the INIT message up the hierarchy and run the topmost version of INIT, to properly initialize the instance. An example in the next section demonstrates use of INIT.