What is Static Variable Class method and keyword in Java - Example Tutorial

What is Static in Java

Static in Java is an important keyword and used to create static method, static class and static variable in Java. Correct understanding of static keyword is required to understand and write sophisticated Java programs. Java 5 also introduced static imports along with Autoboxing, Generics, Enum and varargs method, which allows to import static members of one class or package into another using import keyword and then using them like they are member of that class. In this Java tutorial we will learn about What is is static in Java, What does it mean to be a static field, static class or method in Java and various points and issues involved around How to use static members in Java.


This Java tutorial is also about how to use static keyword in Java and where not to use static keyword. Common rule is anything which you want to share between all object can be made static e.g. singleton instance of a  Singleton Class in Java.

What is the static keyword in Java

static keyword is like any other keyword a simple keyword which can be applied to Java method , nested class or member variable inside a class. static variable in Java belong to whole Class than individual Object. Which means if Class A has a static int variable counter and A has two instance a1 and a2 both will have a static variable counter whose value would be always same except race conditions. 

Remember class is a blueprint while objects are real instances. So a static variable no matter whether its int, char or String will always hold same value for all instances of that class. In other words there is only one copy of static variable will be present in Java Heap memory, which can be accessed or altered by any object. 

When we make a method static means that method belongs to class and you can call it without creating any instance of that class. Mostly utility methods are declared as static method, so that program can call them directly by using class name and not to wait for object to be ready. 

One of the most popular example of static method in Java is main method and this is the reason Why main is static in Java

What is difference between static and non-static variable in Java

Java member variable can be static or non-static. static variable belongs to Java class while non-static variable belongs to object. static variable will keep same value for every object while value of non static variable varies from object to object. In other word one static variable is shared between all object in Java, which means in a multi-threading environment access to static variable must be synchronized other wise you will get unexpected behavior. 


Its not suggest to use static variable in multi-threading and concurrent application because some time it create subtle bugs which is hard to find and debug. In short main difference between static and non static variable is that former belongs to class and later belongs to object.

10 points about static keywords in Java

In this section, we will see some important properties of static variables, static methods and static class in Java. We will also some Java coding best practices related to static variables in Java.

1) static keyword can be applied with variable, method or nested class. static keyword can not be applied on top level classes. Making a top level class static in Java will result in compile time error.

2) static variables are associated with class instead of object.

3) static variables in java keeps same value for every single object.

4) you can not use non-static variable inside a static method , it will result in compilation error as shown below. See Why static variable can not be called from static method for more details.

public class TradingSystem {

    String description = "electronic trading system";

  

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        description = "commodity trading system";

    }

}

Cannot make a static reference to the non-static field description

    at TradingSystem.main(TradingSystem.java:8)

  

  

5) Static variables are bonded using static binding at compile time so they are comparatively faster than there non-static counter part which were bonded during runtime.

6) Static fields are initialized at the time of class loading in Java, opposite to instance variable which is initialised when you create instance of a particular class.

7) Static keyword can also be used to create static block in Java which holds piece of code to executed when class is loaded in Java. This is also known as static initialize block as shown in below example.

    static {

        String category = "electronic trading system";

        System.out.println("example of static block in java");

    }

Beware that if your static initialize block throws Exception than you may get java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError when you try to access the class which failed to load.

8) Static method can not be overridden in Java as they belong to class and not to object. so if you have same static  method in subclass and super class , method will be invoked based on declared type of object instead of runtime for example. Can we override static method in Java is also a popular Java question asked in interviews.

public class TradingSystem {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        TradingSystem system = new DirectMarketAccess();

        DirectMarketAccess dma = new DirectMarketAccess();

        
        // static method of Instrument class will be called,

        // even though object is of sub-class DirectMarketAccess

        system.printCategory();

        
        //static method of EquityInstrument class will be called
        dma.printCategory();

    }

  

    public static void printCategory(){

        System.out.println("inside super class static method");

    }

}

  

class DirectMarketAccess extends TradingSystem{

    public static void printCategory(){

        System.out.println("inside sub class static method");

    }

}

Output:
inside super class static method
inside sub class static method

This shows that static method can not be overridden in Java and concept of method overloading doesn't apply to static methods. Instead declaring same static method on Child class is known as method hiding in Java.

9. If you try to override a static method with a non-static method in sub class you will get compilation error.

10. Be careful while using static keyword in multi-threading or concurrent programming because most of the issue arise of concurrently modifying a static variable by different threads resulting in working with stale or incorrect value if not properly synchronized. most common issue is race condition which occurs due to poor synchronization or no synchronization of static variable.

Best practices - static variable and static method in Java

Here are some of the best practices you can follow while using static variable and method in Java.

1. Consider making a static variable final in Java to make it constant and avoid changing it from anywhere in the code. Also remember that if  you change value of static final variable in Java like in enum String pattern, you need to recompile all classes which use those variable, because static final variables are cached on client side.

2) Do not use static and non static synchronized method to protect a shared resource because both method locked on different object, which means they can be executed concurrently. See my post Java Mistake 2 - Mixing non static and static method in Java for more details.

 

What is nested static class in Java

Nested static class in Java is a static member of any top level class. Though you can make any class static in Java, but you can only make nested classes i.e. class inside another class as static, you can not make any top level class static. 

Those classes are called nested static classes. Since to create instance of any nested class you require instance of outer class but that is not required in case of static nested class in Java. You can have an instance of nested static class without any instance of outer class. Here is an example of static nested class in Java

    

public class StaticClass{

    public static void main(String args[]){

        StaticClass.NestedStaticClass ns = new StaticClass.NestedStaticClass();

        System.out.println(ns.getDescription());

    }

  

    static class NestedStaticClass{

        public String NestedStaticDescription =" Example of Nested Static Class in Java";

      

        public String getDescription(){

            return NestedStaticDescription;

        }

    }
} 

Output:
Example of Nested Static Class in Java

  

 

When to use a nested static class in Java?

Normally we make a class static in Java when we want a single resource to be shared between all instances and normally we do this for utility classes that are required by all components and which themselves don't have any state.

Sometimes interviewer asks when to use Singleton vs Static Class in Java for those purposes, the answer is that if it's completely stateless and it works on provided data then you can go for static class otherwise Singleton pattern is a better choice.

    

When to make a method static in Java?

We can make a method static in Java in the following scenario:

1. Method doesn't depend on object's state, in other words, doesn't depend on any member variable and everything they need is passed as a parameter to them.

2) Method belongs to class naturally can be made static in Java.

3) Utility methods are a good candidate for making static in Java because then they can directly be accessed using class name without even creating any instance. A classic example is java.lang.Math

4) In various designs pattern which need a global access e.g. Singleton pattern, Factory Pattern.

    

The disadvantage of static method in Java

There are certain disadvantages also if you make any method static in Java for example you can not override any static method in Java so it makes testing harder you can not replace that method with mock. Since static method maintains global state they can create subtle bug in concurrent environment which is hard to detect and fix.    

 

Example of static class and method in Java

The static method in Java is very popular to implement Factory design patterns. Since Generics also provides type inference during method invocation, the use of the static factory method to create an object is a popular Java idiom. 

JDK itself is a good example of several static factory methods like String.valueOf().  Core Java library is also a great place to learn how to use static keywords in java with methods, variables, and classes. Another popular example of the static method is the main method in Java.

1. java.util.Collections have some static utility method that operates on provided collection.

2. java.lang.Math class has static methods for maths operations.

3. BorderFactory has a static method to control the creation of objects.

4. Singleton Classes like java.lang.Runtime.

Caution: Static methods should not manage or alter any state. and now a funny question what would happen if you execute the following code

public class TradingSystem {

    private static String category = "electronic trading system";

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        TradingSystem system = null;

        System.out.println(system.category);

    }

will it throw NullPointerException in Java or print "electronic trading system"

That's all on What is a static variable, method, and nested static class in Java. knowledge of static keywords in Java is a must for any Java programmer and the skill to find out when to use static variables or static methods is an important skill. Incorrect and careless use of static variables and static methods in Java will result in serious concurrency issues like deadlock and race conditions in Java.

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