I have read several entries in books about the difference between static and non-static methods, but I don't understand what is being talked about. There are a couple of entries on this site I read through and don't understand either. Can someone explain the difference very thoroughly and simply? I have read that you don't need an object to call a static method, and that you do need to create an object so that you can use it to access a non-static method. But I don't understand what this means... Help please!
See if this helps... a static method is called by referring to the CLASS name, and then the method. One example is the Math class. you can NEVER have a Math object, the compiler won't let you say
but the Math class has lots of methods i want to use. since all the methods are static, i can call them like so:
Similary, your main() method MUST be static. a non-static method must be called from a specific instance of a class. for example, the String class has a method with the signiatur
this tells you what character is at a specific position within a string. So, it's obvious i NEED a string to use this. it would make no sense to say
What string are we looking in? i need something like
notice this time, i called the method by using an actual object (more precisely an object reference), not the CLASS name. does that help? [ March 08, 2004: Message edited by: fred rosenberger ]
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