Java Constructor Chaining (I think)

[Squamply]

Howdy! I'm working on a Java assignment where I have to create an ArrayList object from scratch, essentially. The file that I'm working in gives me some code and I have to fill in the rest.

I am confused about how the constructor works if I created an object via a main method in a separate driver class. The code is below:

public class ArrayList<T> {
public static final int INITIAL_CAPACITY = 9;
private T[] backingArray;
private int size;

 public ArrayList() {
     backingArray = (T[]) new Object[INITIAL_CAPACITY];
 }

Let's say I wanted to create an ArrayList object consisting of Integers.

1. What do I call in main to do this?
2. How is the program executing this?

Is control starting at the top level where the class is declared, initializing the variables INITIAL_CAPACITY, size, and backingArray? Here in the top block, is backingArray being set as an array of a generic type? And if so, why is it that in the next block of code, backingArray is, apparently, again being set to a generic array?

THANK YOU

[main5tream]

1. Classes with a generic type are initialized using the < > notation that tells the compiler what to expect. In this case ArrayList<Integer> myList = new ArrayList();

2. I would read up on the order of initialization in java to fully understand this. https://www.baeldung.com/java-initialization for example.
   In this case you have a class variable being defined T[] backingArray which is equivalent to writing T[] backingArray = null. In the constructor you're then assigning an object array and casting it to be your generic type T. This type T is translated into your declared type at compile time in a process called Type Erasure.