Can I override and overload static methods in Java?

java static overloading overriding
giri picture giri · Mar 19, 2010 · Viewed 228.8k times · Source

I'd like to know:

  1. Why can't static methods be overridden in Java?
  2. Can static methods be overloaded in Java?

Answer

opensas picture opensas · Mar 25, 2011

Static methods can not be overridden in the exact sense of the word, but they can hide parent static methods

In practice it means that the compiler will decide which method to execute at the compile time, and not at the runtime, as it does with overridden instance methods.

For a neat example have a look here.

And this is java documentation explaining the difference between overriding instance methods and hiding class (static) methods.

Overriding: Overriding in Java simply means that the particular method would be called based on the run time type of the object and not on the compile time type of it (which is the case with overriden static methods)

Hiding: Parent class methods that are static are not part of a child class (although they are accessible), so there is no question of overriding it. Even if you add another static method in a subclass, identical to the one in its parent class, this subclass static method is unique and distinct from the static method in its parent class.

Related questions

What does the 'static' keyword do in a class?

To be specific, I was trying this code: package hello; public class Hello { Clock clock = new Clock(); public static void main(String args[]) { clock.sayTime(); } } But it gave the error Cannot access non-static field in static method main So I …

Read More
Mocking static methods with Mockito

I've written a factory to produce java.sql.Connection objects: public class MySQLDatabaseConnectionFactory implements DatabaseConnectionFactory { @Override public Connection getConnection() { try { return DriverManager.getConnection(...); } catch (SQLException e) { throw new RuntimeException(e); } } } I'd like to validate the parameters passed to DriverManager.getConnection, …

Read More
What is the reason behind "non-static method cannot be referenced from a static context"?

The very common beginner mistake is when you try to use a class property "statically" without making an instance of that class. It leaves you with the mentioned error message: You can either make the non static method static or …

Read More