final static methods

[Alina Petra]

The static methods can not be overriden, i've heard that many times. Static methods belong to classes, not instances, therefore they can be just hidden by a method in the subclass, not overriden. Nevertheless, if a static method is declared final in the superclass, it can not be redeclared in a subclass, this behaviour being equivalent with trying to override the static method within the superclass.

Does anyone have an explanation for this behaviour?

[Dylan Honorez]

Static methods aren't overridden, they are 'redefined'. We use the term 'redefined' because polymorphism doesn't occur with overridden static methods.

Don't be distracted because the method is static however. It's the 'final' keyword that is the most important here. Final ensures that a method can't be overridden (or redefined in the case of a static method). Therefore it doesn't matter if the final method is static or not. You just can't override a method of a subclass of which the superclass method is final.

[Burkhard Hassel]

Dylan Honorez posted October 18, 2006 07:27 AM

Static methods aren't overridden, they are 'redefined'. We use the term 'redefined' because polymorphism doesn't occur with overridden static methods.

True, but the funny thing is that the compiler says:
Cannot override...



Yours,
Bu.