private static method in a class

[Ingudam Manoranjan]

Hi,
Can anyone tell me under what circumstance can we use private static method in a class and Why?

Thanks.

[Matt Harrah]

One might be to serve as a helper method to a public static method, but the helper method should not be visible outside the class.

[John Kelty]

Exactly. As a concrete example, consider Java�s Integer class, which has a series of static methods that take an int parameter and return a String version of the int. There�s toHexString(int), toOctalString(int), and toBinaryString(int).

The functionality behind these is all very similar, so naturally Java uses a static helper method,

static String toUnsignedString(int num, int exp).

The method actually has package visibility (because the functionality is also used by class Long) so it�s not quite private, but the basic reasoning behind limiting access to a static helper method is the same.

[Arvind Sampath]

Wow! Are you, by any chance, part of the SUN API Development team, John ?

[Ingudam Manoranjan]

Thanks Matt. Thanks John. I am clearer now .

[John Kelty]

No, nothing nearly that glamerous! I recently did some work with conversios between ints and Strings, so I knew there was something like that in Integer, and then I just googled for the source.