why can't abstract class have abstract static method?

"Deepak Patil Patil", please check your private messages regarding an important administrative matter.

Answer for your question is it is because abstract methods cannot be overridden.
This question has nothing to do with Servlets. I'm moving this to BJ forum.

Devaka Cooray wrote:Answer for your question is it is because abstract methods cannot be overridden.
This question has nothing to do with Servlets. I'm moving this to BJ forum.

I think Devaka meant to say that static methods cannot be overridden. (As explained in the link above.) Meanwhile abstract methods must be overridden. Thus, static methods and abstract methods are fundamentally incompatible.

Deepak: to understand this better, think about this: if a method is abstract, and there are two or more classes that override the method, how does the JVM decide at runtime which version of the method should be executed? And how would this work for a static method?

Mike Simmons wrote:I think Devaka meant to say that static methods cannot be overridden.

Yeah, it is - my mistake

Regarding abstract static methods (as well as why interfaces can't have static methods), does not it all come down to method binding? Static methods, by design intent, are not to be associated with instances. So, I am betting the fathers of Java decided to go ahead and bind at compile time. As abstract methods have no known implementations at compile-time, there is nothing to bind to. I bet it was just a design decision to disallow "static polymorphism". Those are contradictory adjectives and concepts.

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