force subclasses to include constant in abstract java class

Question

I have an abstract class, for which I want all subclasses to define a constant, based on the implementation- it is mainly metadata about the class implementation.

In the superclass:

protected static final String OBJECT_NAME;
protected static final String OBJECT_DEF;

And then in the subclass:

protected static final String OBJECT_NAME = "awesome class";
protected static final String OBJECT_DEF = "an awesome class that is also great";

Is there a way to force implementations of a class to declare a constant?

Answer 1

This will not work that way. I would define these as abstract functions:

protected abstract String objectName();
protected abstract String objectDef();

And in the subclass:

private static final String OBJECT_NAME = "awesome class";
private static final String OBJECT_DEF = "bla";

protected String objectName(){
    return OBJECT_NAME;
}

protected String objectDef(){
    return OBJECT_DEF;
}

The methods are not static, but I think this is the closest you can get to what you want.