When do we use static class?

[Rakesh shankar]

Hi all,

I understood the usage of static modifier wrt variable and methods. For example sqrt is a static method which can be used without creating/instantiating any object.
Likewise, can anyone tell me when do we declare class as static?

Thanks!

[Stephan van Hulst]

Always; unless the class needs access to non-static members of its enclosing class. Think of a non-static inner class as one that has an extra field which has a reference to an instance of the outer class. So you can see, if it doesn't use methods or fields of the outer class, it's just a waste of space, so make it static.

[Campbell Ritchie]

It is also a lot easier to gain access to new Outer.Inner() than to new Outer().new Inner()

I think that’s the right syntax, but I’m not certain.

[Rakesh shankar]

Hi Stephan,

I could not not follow your explanation completely. Could you please elaborate your explanation with an example.

Thanks!
Rakesh

[Mike Simmons]

I think we may be jumping the gun here. Rakhesh, have you studied nested or inner classes yet? If you haven't, a better answer may be: don't declare a class as static at all, unless and until you have studied nested and inner classes.

After that, if your class is a nested or inner class, and if that nested class does not need any instance data from the outer class, and it's also not an anonymous or local class, then you can (and probably should) make the nested class static.

If the second paragraph above did not make sense to you, reread the first paragraph, and try again after you learn about nested and inner classes.

[Anurag Malaviya]

Rakesh shankar wrote:Hi all,

I understood the usage of static modifier wrt variable and methods. For example sqrt is a static method which can be used without creating/instantiating any object.
Likewise, can anyone tell me when do we declare class as static?

Thanks!

Hi Rakesh

You can declare any class as static, whose variables and methods will be used as a common resource, by other classes.
In this way, you don't have to create an instance of a class to use these methods.

Hope this helps.

[Campbell Ritchie]

You can only declare nested classes static. I think that last post was confusing.