Re: To static or not to static

From:
Lew <lew@lewscanon.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.java.programmer
Date:
Fri, 26 Oct 2007 14:48:24 -0400
Message-ID:
<StSdnahUmsfkq7_anZ2dnUVZ_jqdnZ2d@comcast.com>
Are Nybakk wrote:

Wojtek wrote:

If I have a class such as:
------------------
public class MyClass
{
 public MyClass()
 {
    super();
 }

 public void printThis(String parm)
 {
   System.out.println(parm);
 }
}
------------------

I can run the method like this:

(new MyClass()).printThis("Hello World");

Since printThis only uses passed parameters, I could also have this:
------------------
public class MyClass
{
 public MyClass()
 {
    super();
 }

 public static void printThis(String parm)
 {
   System.out.println(parm);
 }
}
------------------
and then I can run the method like this:

MyClass.printThis("Hello World");

Both ways are valid, and functionally equivalent. The main difference
being that the first way instantiates a class whereas the second does
not.

Thoughts?


Well.. I havn't really used much static methods/fields myself, but they
can be accessed accross packages. You might not always want that?


That has to do with access specification: private, package-private (no
modifier), protected or public. Static or not doesn't affect package visibility.

Anyway, such a method as you show here should perhaps be in it's [sic] own
class (like the methods in the java.lang.Math class).


In this case, they were. They were in their own class, "MyClass".

--
Lew

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