Static method overriding

Question

It is said that a method declared as static can not be overridden. But when I tried. I was able to override.. how is this possible??
Is there any mistake in my code? I'm just confused.. please help
https://code.sololearn.com/c7S0qJgp5uAx/?ref=app

Answer 1

Hello Yamraj,

When you define a static method on the derived with same signature as a static method in base class, it is known as method hiding, which differs a little bit from method overriding. That's why you are not getting a compile-time error on your code.

Take a look on those 2 links that may help you to clarify those concepts:

https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/java/IandI/override.html
https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/overriding-in-java/

Hope that helps :)

Answer 2

Hey Jorge Beviláqua,

It was really helpful
Thankyou soo much 😊

Answer 3

Glad to hear! 😃
You’re Wecome! 😊

Answer 4

We cannot overload two methods in Java if they differ only by static keyword (number of parameters and types of parameters is same). See following Java program for example. This behaviour is same in C++ (See point 2 of this).

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// filename Test.java
public class Test {
public static void foo() {
System.out.println("Test.foo() called ");
}
public void foo() { // Compiler Error: cannot redefine foo()
System.out.println("Test.foo(int) called ");
}
public static void main(String args[]) {
Test.foo();
}
}
Output: Compiler Error, cannot redefine foo()