Static variables and inheritance

[Rahul Sudip Bose]

I made a class P and Q-extends P. P has a static string S. Both classes have a non-static method to edit S. Instances of P and Q share one static string. But, that is not the case for int. I get errors "cannot find symbol : variable <your-static-variable>" if i replace String with an int (after making the necessary changes to code).
What is happening ?

[Matthew Brown]

I think we're going to need to see some actual code to be much help here.

[Rahul Sudip Bose]

The code with static int which does not compile :

class Animal
{
	static int count = 0;
	void change(){count++;} 
}

class Dog
{
	void change(){count++;}
}

public class Count
{
	public static void main(String[]args)
	{
	  Animal a1 = new Animal(); 	
	  Dog d1 = new Dog();
	  System.out.println("Animal.count " + a1.count);
	  a1.change();
	  System.out.println("Animal.count via a1 " + a1.count);
	  d1.change();
	  System.out.println("Animal.count via d1 " + d1.count);

	}

}

The errors :

Count.java:17: cannot find symbol
symbol  : variable count
location: class Dog
        void change(){count++;}
                      ^
Count.java:30: cannot find symbol
symbol  : variable count
location: class Dog
          System.out.println("Animal.count via d1 " + d1.count);
                                                        ^
2 errors

The code with static string, compiles and runs :

class A
{
	static String s = "-";
	void change(String x)
	{
	  s += x;
	}
	
}

class B extends A
{
	void change(String x)
	{
	  s += x;
	}
	
}

class StaticString
{
	public static void main(String[]args)
	{	
	  A a1 = new A();
	  B b1 = new B();
	  a1.change("A");
	  b1.change("-B");
	  
	  System.out.println(A.s);
	}

}

PS : the two thumbs up...hmm... interesting...

[Henry Wong]

The code with String uses inheritance. The code with int does not -- Dog goes not inherit from Animal.

Henry

[Henry Wong]

Rahul Sudip Bose wrote:
PS : the two thumbs up...hmm... interesting...

It means that at least two people agree with what Matthew said in the post.

Henry

[Rahul Sudip Bose]

oh god...sorry for that lame post...i guess that means i should be sleeping now

[Mohamed Sanaulla]

errors like- Cannot find symblo must be easy to spot. There would be not much of logic or thinking involved in spotting them. If we try to think too much then we would get misguided and end up in a big mess.

And yeah you need to catch up with your sleep