Time estimate: 45 min.

6.7. Static Variables and Methods

In Unit 2, we explored the Math class and its many static methods like Math.random(), and we’ve written many main methods which are always static. In this lesson, you will learn to write your own static variables and methods.

class ClassName
{
  // static variable
  public static type variableName;

  // static method
  public static returnType methodName(parameters)
  {
        // implementation not shown
  }
}
// To call a static method or variable, use the class name
System.out.println(ClassName.staticVariable);
ClassName.staticMethod();

Code in static methods only has direct access to other static variables and static methods. This is because in the body of a static method the special variable this is not defined because the static method was not invoked on any particular instance of the class.

As a consequence code in static methods cannot access any instance variables or call non-static methods because references to instance variables and methods by their plain names are implicitly referencing the value of this. That is in this class:

public class Student
{

  private String name;

  public void getName()
  {
      return name;
  }
}

we could also write getName with an explicit reference to this:

public void getName()
{
    return this.name;
}

But if getName was static then there would be no this and thus no way to access any instances name variable.

Static methods, however, can access instance methods and call instance method if they somehow have access to an instance of the class, such as having one passed in as an argument:

public class Student
{

  private String name;

  public Student(String name)
  {
      this.name = name;
  }

  public void getName()
  {
      return name;
  }

  public static Student copyStudent(Student other)
  {
    return new Student(other.name);
  }
}

In that class copyStudent is static but the reference to other.name is okay because it is on a specific instance of Student passed as an argument to the method.

Since there is only 1 copy of a static variable or method, static variables are often used to count how many objects are generated. In the following class Person, there is a static variable called personCounter that is incremented each time the Person constructor is called to initialize a new Person object. The static method printCounter prints out its value. You can also watch how it works in the Java visualizer by clicking the CodeLens button below.

What will the following code print out? Try adding another Person object and see what happens. Try the CodeLens button to run the code step by step.

Another common use for static variables is the keep track of a minimum or maximum value or an average of the values in a collection of objects.

exercise Check Your Understanding

You can see this code in action in the Java visualizer.

coding exercise Coding Exercise

Fix the bugs in the following code.

6.7.1. groupwork Programming Challenge : Static Song and counter

In the last lesson, we wrote a class with methods to print out the song The Ants Go Marching. Notice that this is a class where there are no instance variables and we don’t really need to generate multiple objects. With students or pets, it makes sense to have multiple objects. With the Song, we can just make the methods static and have just 1 copy of them.

  1. Copy in your class from the last lesson into this active code window. Change the method(s) that print out the verses of the Song to be static. In the main method, change how you call the static methods by using just the classname instead of creating an object.

  2. Add a public static variable called numVerses to the class that keeps track of the number of verses. Increment this variable in the method verse and print it out at the beginning of the verse.

6.7.2. Summary

  • Static methods and variables include the keyword static before their name in the header or declaration. They can be public or private.

  • Static variables belong to the class, with all objects of a class sharing a single static variable.

  • Static methods are associated with the class, not instances of the class.

  • In static methods, the special variable this is not defined.

  • Static variables and methods are referenced with the class name and the dot operator, since they are associated with a class, not objects of a class.

  • Code in static and non-static methods in a class can refer to static variables and other static methods in the same class with just a simple name.

  • Static methods cannot access or change the values of instance variables unless they have explicit access to an instance of the class, such as by being passed one as an argument.

  • Static methods cannot call non-static methods unless they have explicit access to an instance of the class, such as by being passed one as an argument.

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