Re: Static Variables and JAR Files

From:

Mark Space <markspace@sbc.global.net>

Newsgroups:

comp.lang.java.programmer

Date:

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 13:37:28 -0800

Message-ID:

<uc_yj.4279$fX7.2350@nlpi061.nbdc.sbc.com>

Eric Sosman wrote:

Mark Space wrote:

Obviously, when you make a new class via inheritance, it gets it's own
copy of the static variable. So there will be one static for the
parent class, and one for the child class. The static is a "class
variable" and since there are two classes (parent and child) there are
two static variables.

Please predict the output of this simple demonstration, and
then test your prediction:

Well clearly I was mistaken. That's pretty frustrating too because I
looked this up before I posted, and the documentation and examples
seemed to indicate that there would be a copy of a static variable.

Even the JLS doesn't really say, it just says that non-private fields
are inherited. I'm not sure how one is supposed to determine when
documentation, including the JLS, should be taken at face value and when
one has to experiment carefully to determine what the docs actually meant.

I'm not sure what else to add, other than I'm really fuming over having
missed that.