Is it possible to override a static method in derived class?

Question

I have a static method defined in a base class, I want to override this method in its child class, is it possible?

I tried this but it did not work as I expected. When I created an instance of class B and invoke its callMe() method, the static foo() method in class A is invoked.

public abstract class A {
  public static void foo() {
    System.out.println("I am base class");
  }

  public void callMe() {
    foo();
  }
}

Public class B {
  public static void foo() {
      System.out.println("I am child class");
  }
}

Answer 1

Can I override a static method?

Many people have heard that you can't override a static method. This is true - you can't. However it is possible to write code like this:

class Foo {
    public static void method() {
        System.out.println("in Foo");
    }
}

class Bar extends Foo {
    public static void method() {
        System.out.println("in Bar");
    }
}

This compiles and runs just fine. Isn't it an example of a static method overriding another static method? The answer is no - it's an example of a static method hiding another static method. If you try to override a static method, the compiler doesn't actually stop you - it just doesn't do what you think it does.

So what's the difference?

Briefly, when you override a method, you still get the benefits of run-time polymorphism, and when you hide, you don't. So what does that mean? Take a look at this code:

class Foo {
    public static void classMethod() {
        System.out.println("classMethod() in Foo");
    }

    public void instanceMethod() {
        System.out.println("instanceMethod() in Foo");
    }
}

class Bar extends Foo {
    public static void classMethod() {
        System.out.println("classMethod() in Bar");
    }

    public void instanceMethod() {
        System.out.println("instanceMethod() in Bar");
    }
}

class Test {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Foo f = new Bar();
        f.instanceMethod();
        f.classMethod();
    }
}

If you run this, the output is

instanceMethod() in Bar
classMethod() in Foo

Why do we get instanceMethod from Bar, but classMethod() from Foo? Aren't we using the same instance f to access both of these? Yes we are - but since one is overriding and the other is hiding, we see different behavior.

Since instanceMethod() is (drum roll please...) an instance method, in which Bar overrides the method from Foo, at run time the JVM uses the actual class of the instance f to determine which method to run. Although f was declared as a Foo, the actual instance we created was a new Bar(). So at runtime, the JVM finds that f is a Bar instance, and so it calls instanceMethod() in Bar rather than the one in Foo. That's how Java normally works for instance methods.

With classMethod() though. since (ahem) it's a class method, the compiler and JVM don't expect to need an actual instance to invoke the method. And even if you provide one (which we did: the instance referred to by f) the JVM will never look at it. The compiler will only look at the declared type of the reference, and use that declared type to determine, at compile time, which method to call. Since f is declared as type Foo, the compiler looks at f.classMethod() and decides it means Foo.classMethod. It doesn't matter that the instance reffered to by f is actually a Bar - for static methods, the compiler only uses the declared type of the reference. That's what we mean when we say a static method does not have run-time polymorphism.

Because instance methods and class methods have this important difference in behavior, we use different terms - "overriding" for instance methods and "hiding" for class methods - to distinguish between the two cases. And when we say you can't override a static method, what that means is that even if you write code that looks like it's overriding a static method (like the first Foo and Bar at the top of this page) - it won't behave like an overridden method. for more refer this

Answer 2

Static method calls are resolved on compile time (no dynamic dispatch).

class main {
    public static void main(String args[]) {
            A a = new B();
            B b = new B();
            a.foo();
            b.foo();
            a.callMe();
            b.callMe();
    }
}
abstract class A {
    public static void foo() {
        System.out.println("I am superclass");
    }

    public void callMe() {
        foo(); //no late binding here; always calls A.foo()
    }
}

class B extends A {
    public static void foo() {
        System.out.println("I am subclass");
    }
}

gives

I am superclass
I am subclass
I am superclass
I am superclass