static method can be overridden?

[Song Guo]

<SCJP> says "...Remember that static methods can't be overridden! This doesn't mean they can't be redefined in a subclass, but redefining and overriding aren't the same thing."
But this code confused me !

class Fruit {
    public static void info() {
        System.out.println("fruit");
    }
}

class Apple extends Fruit {
    protected static void info() {
        System.out.println("apple");                                                        
    }

}

When I compile the code , the compiler said that "info() in Apple cannot override info() in Fruit; attempting to assign weaker access privileges"
It means static method can be overridden ? But <SCJP> says they cannot be overriden !

[harshvardhan ojha]

class Fruit {
public static void info() {
System.out.println("fruit");
}
}

class Apple extends Fruit {

}

Here class level method info is extended in Apple, now if you will call Apple.info() this will five output as Fruit.

This means you wont achieve the intended purpose of overriding, i.e. calling a method depending upon its object at run time, so overriding has no effect but you have that method extended and access to code will be resolved at compile time you will get error if you happen to violate the overriding rules.

[gurpeet singh]

just because you got compiler error that don't assign weaker privileges does not prove that static methods can be overridden. for a moment ignore the error. or better assing public instead of protected. then create a new class and in the main method do this

Fruit f = new Apple();

f.info();

it will print fruit. had there been overriding it would have print apple. overriding happens at runtime. it is late-binding. which method to called is decided at runtime. but here the call is decided on the basis of TYPE of f, which is Fruit. so no overriding.