Can you override static methods in java

Related Articles. Table of Contents. Save Article. Improve Article. Like Article. Since static method can not be overridden, it.

Previous Method overloading and null error in Java. Next Access specifier of methods in interfaces. Recommended Articles. Article Contributed By :. Easy Normal Medium Hard Expert. Writing code in comment? Please use ide. Method Overriding VS Method Hiding in java If and instance method in a subclass has same signature and return type as instance method in the superclass ,it is called overriding. Method signature means name, and the number and the type of its parameters.

Number ,type of the parameters should be same in method written in super class and sub class. This is called a co-variant return type. If a class method in subclass has the same signature as a class method in the superclass, This is called method hiding. I tried to override static variable in Java 7. I am able to do it. AlienOnEarth, it's not overriding but hiding, static variables are resolved at compile time by using Type of variable, Sine you are accessing them in TestParent class, it's print "test".

Though it is certainly possible, does it not defeat the whole purpose of static modifier. Please correct me if I am wrong, however I felt compelled to post my query. Regards, Ravi Prakash. Post a Comment. Can a static method be overridden in Java, or can you override and overload static method in Java , is a common Java interview questions mostly asked to 2 years experienced Java programmers.

The answer is, No, you can not override static method in Java , though you can declare a method with the same signature in a subclass. It won't be overridden in the exact sense, instead, that is called method hiding. But at the same time, you can overload static methods in Java, there is nothing wrong with declaring static methods with the same name, but different arguments. Some time interviewer also ask, Why you can not override static methods in Java?

The answer to this question lies in the time of resolution. As I said in the difference between static and dynamic binding , static methods are bonded during compile time using Type of reference variable, and not Object. If you have using IDE like Netbeans and Eclipse, and If you try to access static methods using an object, you will see warnings. As per Java coding convention, static methods should be accessed by class name rather than an object.

In short, a static method can be overloaded, but can not be overridden in Java. If you declare, another static method with same signature in derived class than the static method of superclass will be hidden, and any call to that static method in subclass will go to static method declared in that class itself. This is known as method hiding in Java. Let's see an example of trying to override a static method.

In this Java The program, we have two classes Parent and Child , both have name method which is static. Now, As per rules of method overriding , if a method is overridden than a call is resolved by the type of object during runtime.

This means, in our test class StaticOverrideTest , p. This happens, because static methods are resolved or bonded during compile time , and only information that is available, and used by the compiler is a type of reference variable.

Since p was a reference variable of the Parent type, the name method from the Parent class was called. Now, In order to prove that static method can be hidden, if we call Child. This means static methods can not be overridden in Java, they can only be hidden. This also answers, Why the static method can not be overridden in Java , because they are resolved during compile time. By the way, this example doesn't show, whether you can overload static method or not, but you can.

We can invoke static methods by using the class name. For example, Math. The method returns the absolute value of the passed argument. The static method cannot access instance variables or methods. It is a feature of object-oriented programming. It is used to achieve run-time polymorphism. The subclass provides a specific implementation of a method that is already provided by its parent class, known as method overriding.

The signature of the method in parent and child class must be the same. In method overriding , which method is to be executed, decided at run-time. The decision is made according to the object that we called. It is also a feature of object-oriented programming. It is used to achieve compile-time polymorphism. It allows us to use the same method name but different signatures. If a class has more than one method with the same name but a different method signature, it is known as method overloading.

The answer is Yes. We can overload static methods. But remember that the method signature must be different. For example, consider the following Java program. Here a question arises that can we overload the methods if they are only different by static keyword.

The answer is No. We cannot override two methods if they differ only by static keyword. No, we cannot override static methods because method overriding is based on dynamic binding at runtime and the static methods are bonded using static binding at compile time. So, we cannot override static methods. In the following example, the ParentClass has a static method named display and the ChildClass also has the same method signature. The method in the derived class ChildClass hides the method in the base class.

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