Global variables in Java

Question

To define Global Variable you can make use of static Keyword

public class Example {
    public static int a;
    public static int b;
}

now you can access a and b from anywhere by calling

Example.a;

Example.b;

You don't. That's by design. You shouldn't do it even if you could.

That being said you could create a set of public static members in a class named Globals.

public class Globals {
   public static int globalInt = 0;
   ///
}

but you really shouldn't :). Seriously .. don't do it.

Another way is to create an interface like this:

public interface GlobalConstants
{
  String name = "Chilly Billy";
  String address = "10 Chicken head Lane";
}

Any class that needs to use them only has to implement the interface:

public class GlobalImpl implements GlobalConstants
{
  public GlobalImpl()
  {
     System.out.println(name);
  }
}

You are better off using dependency injection:

public class Globals {
    public int a;
    public int b;
}

public class UsesGlobals {
    private final Globals globals;
    public UsesGlobals(Globals globals) {
        this.globals = globals;
    }
}

Lots of good answers, but I want to give this example as it's considered the more proper way to access variables of a class by another class: using getters and setters.

The reason why you use getters and setters this way instead of just making the variable public is as follows. Lets say your var is going to be a global parameter that you NEVER want someone to change during the execution of your program (in the case when you are developing code with a team), something like maybe the URL for a website. In theory this could change and may be used many times in your program, so you want to use a global var to be able to update it all at once. But you do not want someone else to go in and change this var (possibly without realizing how important it is). In that case you simply do not include a setter method, and only include the getter method.

public class Global{
    private static int var = 5;

    public static int getVar(){
        return Global.var;
    }

    //If you do not want to change the var ever then do not include this
    public static void setVar(int var){
        Global.var = var;
    }
}

Truly speaking there is not a concept of "GLOBAL" in a java OO program

Nevertheless there is some truth behind your question because there will be some cases where you want to run a method at any part of the program. For example---random() method in Phrase-O-Matic app;it is a method should be callable from anywhere of a program.

So in order to satisfy the things like Above "We need to have Global-like variables and methods"

TO DECLARE A VARIABLE AS GLOBAL.

 1.Mark the variable as public static final While declaring.

TO DECLARE A METHOD AS GLOBAL.

 1. Mark the method as public static While declaring.

Because I declared global variables and method as static you can call them anywhere you wish by simply with the help of following code

ClassName.X

NOTE: X can be either method name or variable name as per the requirement and ClassName is the name of the class in which you declared them.