Redefine static method?

It seems that I cannot redefine a static method in a subclass in ABAP OO, right?
Is there a reason for that? Is this like this in other languages as well?

That's true. You cannot redefine static methods in ABAP OO.
I can add that a class that defines a public or protected static attribute shares this
attribute with all its subclasses.
Overriding static methods is possible for example in Java.
This simple piece of code illustrates this:
public class Super {
    public static String getNum(){
        return "I'm super";
     public static void main(String[] args) {
         System.out.println("Super: " + Super.getNum());
         System.out.println("Sub: " + Sub.getNum());
public class Sub extends Super{
    public static String getNum(){
        return "I'm not";
The output is:
Super: I'm super
Sub: I'm not
When overriding methods in Java you must remember that an instance method cannot override a static method, and a static method cannot hide an instance method.
In C# a static member can't be marked as 'override', 'virtual' or 'abstract'. But it it is possible to hide a base class static method in a sub-class by using the keyword 'new':
public class Super
public static void myMethod()
public class Sub: Super
public new static void myMethod()

Similar Messages

Redefine Static Methods in ABAP OO

Hello,
I want to redefine an public static method and returns always an error.
Okay, I already solved the problem with an workaround, but I still don't understand, why it is not possible to redefine static methods in ABAP OO.
If someone can give me an plausible reason, so I don't have do die stupid. G
Thanks for help!
Matthias

It is built into the language that way. HEre is a link that may or may not give you an answer.
redefine static method?
Regards,
Rich Heilman

OOPs Concept ! - Why Static Methods can't be redefined in its subclass ?

Dear Experts ,
I had searched the SDN , but unable to find out the satisfactorily answers ..
Can anybody let me know the reason for the following Confusion in Oops Concept
Question 1: As we know , We can Inherit the Static Methods in the Sub Class , But we can't redefine it in the base class or Sub Class ?
Question 2 : Why can't Static Method be Abstract ?
Question 3 : Can a Class be Abstract or Final Both, If yes, then why ?
Thanks in Advance
Saurabh Goel

As per the above discussion two of your doubts have already been clarified so I am taking only third one.
A class cannot never be Abstract and final both coz Abstract signifies that the implementation of the class has not been defined completelyi.e. may be some methods have been defined but few methods are still missing implementation. 'Final' is used for those classes/methods which cannot be redefined means the complete implementation of the method has been defined no one can implement further logic under the same method.
If you are saying your method is Final then it cannot be overridden and Abstract implies that method implementation is yet to be defined which can only be implemented if that class/method is not 'Final'. So both the terms are contradictory.
Hope it clarifies!!!
Thanks,
Vishesh

Static Methods, the case of HashMap

    static int hash(Object x) {
        int h = x.hashCode();
        h += ~(h << 9);
        h ^= (h >>> 14);
        h += (h << 4);
        h ^= (h >>> 10);
        return h;I was cruising the HashMap class. And I noticed right away that all non interface methods were static package methods. Now isn't that bad OOP practice? Right. It breaks the inheritance relationship.
It means I cannot make a subclass of HashMap and re-write that hash function. Was that intentional?
on a OOP perspective or
on a down to earth matter,
Are static method more performant in speed? Or memory ( i guess yes here)? or what?

I was cruising the HashMap class. And I noticed right
away that all non interface methods were static
package methods. Now isn't that bad OOP practice?
Right. It breaks the inheritance relationship.
It means I cannot make a subclass of HashMap and
re-write that hash function. Was that intentional?If they are package-private, I take it for granted they didn't want application developers to redefine these methods.
If they are static, they are also preventing themselves (Javasoft) to override them in subclasses that would be included in the JDK.
I'd say in both cases, that it is intentional, since, at least in the case of the hash function, the intent is to disperse hash results even for low-dispersing custom hash functions, as was explained in another thread in ALT (wasn't it you already? ;-).
This is maybe questionable, but defendable, that they didn't want any subclass to mess with these "optimizations".
You can regard this as poor OO practice, but this is no more hampering you that if they had declared the method as private.
I acknowledge that declaring the method private has the advantage of making explicit that they don't want anyone to override it.
But by declaring it static package, they ensure no-one can override it, so the other methods in HashMap relying on this method are guaranteed that no subclass can mess with it, but other classes in the same package (say, WeakHashMap, HashSet,...), can call it. all the same
Are static method more performant in speed? Or memory
( i guess yes here)? or what?Static methods are not faster in themselves, but invoking them may be, since they can be "statically" resolved.
When the calling class is loaded in memory, the callee is loaded too, and the interpreter or JIT or HotSpot is free to inline the static method's body (no indirection).
Even if it doesn't, invoking the static method implies to moving the program counter or pointer, or whatever, to an adress that has already been resolved once and for all (one indirection),
whereas invoking a virtual method implies a double indirection, looking up the address in some kind of dynamic table (one per class, determined by the target object's leaf class).
There are indeed two different bytecodes for these two situations!

Redefining a method

Is it possible to redefine a method of a class within an already instantiated instance of that class? For example if I have ...
class Dog{
public boolean isBigDog(int width, int height){
    return true; // always says its a big dog
public void sitOnCouch(){
     if(isBigDog(with,height){
       System.out.println("Dog can sit on the couch");
     }else{
       System.out.println("Dog CAN'T sit on the couch");
public static void main(String[] args){
Dog dog = new Dog();
dog.sitOnCouch(); // prints out "Dog can sit on the couch"
//now if I didn't want that same dog, not a new one, to sit on the couch how can I redefine isBigDog()
//for that instance of dog?
}What I am really trying to do is to redfine the isCellEditable(int row, int col) in the DefaultTableModel class on an already instantiated DefaultTableModel. User click's a check box to allow cells to be editable or not to be editable.

AwhHawh.... GOT IT! In case anyone cares for this
bit of code it will "change cell editable on the fly".Not bad at all. However it has the side effect of creating a whole new model and throwing away
the old one. Let me suggest this instead, as per my previous post recommending a subclass:public class MyDefaultTableModel extends DefaultTableModel {
// local variable to store "editable" status
private boolean isEditable = true;
public MyDefaultTableModel(Object[][] data, Object[] columnNames) {
    super(data, columnNames);
public DefaultTableModel(Object[] columnNames, int rowCount) {
    super(columnNames, rowCount);
// implement any other constructors you need like the above
// method to change "editable" status
public void setAllowEditing(boolean allow) {
    isEditable = allow;
// override isCellEditable to use our private variable
public boolean isCellEditable(int row, int column) {
    return isEditable;
}Hope this helps.
PC²

Compilation error while calling static method from another class

Hi,
I am new to Java Programming. I have written two class files Dummy1 and Dummy2.java in the same package Test.
In Dummy1.java I have declared a static final variable and a static method as you can see it below.
package Test;
import java.io.*;
public class Dummy1
public static final int var1= 10;
public static int varDisp(int var2)
return(var1+var2);
This is program is compiling fine.
I have called the static method varDisp from the class Dummy2 and it is as follows
package Test;
import java.io.*;
public class Dummy2
public int var3=15;
public int test=0;
test+=Dummy1.varDisp(var3);
and when i compile Dummy2.java, there is a compilation error <identifier > expected.
Please help me in this program.

public class Dummy2
public int var3=15;
public int test=0;
test+=Dummy1.varDisp(var3);
}test+=Dummy1.varDisplay(var3);
must be in a method, it cannot just be out somewhere in the class!

Using a non-static vector in a generic class with static methods

I have a little problem with a class (the code is shown underneath). The problem is the Assign method. This method should return a clone (an exact copy) of the set given as an argument. When making a new instance of a GenericSet (with the Initialize method) within the Assign method, the variables of the original set and the clone have both a reference to the same vector, while there exists two instances of GenericSet. My question is how to refer the clone GenericSet's argument to a new vector instead of the existing vector of the original GenericSet. I hope you can help me. Thanks
package genericset;
import java.util.*;
public class GenericSet<E>{
private Vector v;
public GenericSet(Vector vec) {
v = vec;
private <T extends Comparable> Item<T> get(int index) {
return (Item<T>) v.get(index);
public static <T extends Comparable> GenericSet<T> initialize() {
return new GenericSet<T>(new Vector());
public Vector getVector() {
return v;
public static <T extends Comparable> GenericSet<T> insert (GenericSet<T> z, Item<T> i){
GenericSet<T> g = assign(z);
Vector v = g.getVector();
if (!member(g,i))
v.addElement(i);
return g;
public static <T extends Comparable> GenericSet<T> delete(GenericSet<T> z, Item<T> i){
GenericSet<T> g = assign(z);
Vector v = g.getVector();
if (member(g,i))
v.remove(i);
return g;
public static <T extends Comparable> boolean member(GenericSet<T> z, Item<T> i) {
Vector v = z.getVector();
return v.contains(i);
public static <T extends Comparable> boolean equal(GenericSet<T> z1, GenericSet<T> z2) {
Vector v1 = z1.getVector();
Vector v2 = z2.getVector();
if((v1 == null) && (v2 != null))
return false;
return v1.equals(v2);
public static <T extends Comparable> boolean empty(GenericSet<T> z) {
return (cardinality(z) == 0);
public static <T extends Comparable> GenericSet<T> union(GenericSet<T> z1, GenericSet<T> z2) {
GenericSet<T> g = assign(z1);
for(int i=0; i<cardinality(z2); i++) {
Item<T> elem = z2.get(i);
insert(g, elem);
return g;
public static <T extends Comparable> GenericSet<T> intersection(GenericSet<T> z1, GenericSet<T> z2) {
GenericSet<T> g = initialize();
for(int i=0; i<cardinality(z2); i++) {
Item<T> elem = z2.get(i);
if(member(z1, elem))
insert(g, elem);
return g;
public static <T extends Comparable> GenericSet<T> difference(GenericSet<T> z1, GenericSet<T> z2) {
GenericSet<T> g = initialize();
for(int i=0; i<cardinality(z1); i++) {
Item<T> elem = z1.get(i);
if(!member(z2, elem))
insert(g, elem);
for(int i=0; i<cardinality(z2); i++) {
Item<T> elem = z2.get(i);
if(!member(z1, elem))
insert(g, elem);
return g;
public static <T extends Comparable> GenericSet<T> assign(GenericSet<T> z) {
GenericSet<T> g = initialize();
for(int i=0; i<cardinality(z); i++) {
Item<T> elem = z.get(i);
insert(g, elem);
return g;
public static <T extends Comparable> boolean subset(GenericSet<T> z1, GenericSet<T> z2) {
for(int i=0; i<cardinality(z1); i++) {
Item<T> elem = z1.get(i);
if(!member(z2, elem))
return false;
return true;
public static <T extends Comparable> int cardinality(GenericSet<T> z){
Vector v = z.getVector();
return v.size();
}

The issue is not "reference a non-static interface", but simply that you cannot reference a non-static field in a static method - what value of the field ed would the static method use? Seems to me your findEditorData should look something like this:   public static EditorBean findEditorData( String username, EditorBean editorData )
      return editorData.ed.findEditor( username );
   }

Using HttpServletRequest object to share variables between static methods.

Does anyone know of the overhead/performance implications of using the HttpServletRequest object to share variables between a static method and the calling code?
First, let me explain why I am doing it.
I have some pagination code that I would like to share across multiple servlets. So I pulled the pagination code out, and created a static method that these servlets could all use for their pagination.
public class Pagination {
     public static void setPagination (HttpServletRequest request, Config conf, int totalRows) {
          int page = 0;
          if (request.getParameter("page") != null) {
               page = new Integer(request.getParameter("page")).intValue();
          int articlesPerPage = conf.getArticlesPerPage();
          int pageBoundary = conf.getPageBoundary();
            int numOfPages = totalRows / articlesPerPage;
            // Checks if the page variable is empty (not set)
            if (page == 0 || (page > numOfPages && (totalRows % articlesPerPage) == 0 && page < numOfPages + 1)) {
             page = 1; // If it is empty, we're on page 1
          // Ex: (2 * 25) - 25 = 25 <- data starts at 25
         int startRow = page * articlesPerPage - (articlesPerPage);
         int endRow = startRow + (articlesPerPage);
         // Set array of page numbers.
         int minDisplayPage = page - pageBoundary;
         if (minDisplayPage < 1) {
              minDisplayPage = 1;
         int maxDisplayPage = page + pageBoundary;
         if (maxDisplayPage > numOfPages) {
              maxDisplayPage = numOfPages;
         int arraySize = (maxDisplayPage - minDisplayPage) + 1;
         // Check if there is a remainder page (partially filled page).
         if ((totalRows % articlesPerPage) != 0) arraySize++;
         // Set array to correct size.
         int[] pages = new int[arraySize];
         // Fill the array.
         for (int i = 1; i <= pages.length; i++) {
              pages[i - 1] = i;
         // Set pageNext and pagePrev variables.
         if (page != 1) {
              int pagePrev = page - 1;
              request.setAttribute("pagePrev", pagePrev);
         if ((totalRows - (articlesPerPage * page)) > 0) {
             int pageNext = page + 1;
             request.setAttribute("pageNext", pageNext);
         // These will be used by calling code for SQL query.
         request.setAttribute("startRow", startRow);
         request.setAttribute("endRow", endRow);
         // These will be used in JSP page.
         request.setAttribute("totalRows", totalRows);
         request.setAttribute("numOfPages", numOfPages);
         request.setAttribute("page", page);
         request.setAttribute("pages", pages);
}I need two parameters from this method (startrow and endrow) so I can perform my SQL queries. Since this is a multithreaded app, I do not want to use class variables that I will later retrieve through methods.
So my solution was to just set the two parameters in the request and grab them later with the calling code like this:
// Set pagination
Pagination.setPagination(request, conf, tl.getTotalRows());
// Grab variables set into request by static method
int startRow = new Integer(request.getAttribute("startRow").toString());
int endRow = new Integer(request.getAttribute("endRow").toString());
// Use startRow and endRow for SQL query below...Does anyone see any problem with this from a resource/performance standpoint? Any idea on what the overhead is in using the HttpServletRequest object like this to pass variables around?
Thanks for any thoughts.

You could either
- create instance vars in both controllers and set them accordingly to point to the same object (from the App Delegate) OR
- create an instance variable on the App Delegate and access it from within the view controllers
Hope this helps!

Can you set a global EntityResolver (via system property, or static method)

I'm trying to set a customized EntityResolver (telling the xml parser where to look for XML schema files).
Usually, you'd use the standard syntax - somehting like:
SaxParser parser=new SaxParser();
parser.parser.setEntityResolver(myResolver);
However, I was wondering whether you can set a "global" EntityResolver, to be used as default for all parsers ?
Maybe this can be done through some system property, or a static method somewhere in the parsing XML ?
(BTW, I need it because I'm using some third-party API, that encapsulates a SaxParser, but won't let me access it, so I can't configure it directly).
thanks.

I don't think you can.
What is possible is to set content on the folder resource itself; that would be returned instead of the page you mentioned.

How to call a static method from an event handler

Hi,
I'm trying to call a static method of class I designed. But I don't know how to do it. This method will be called from an event handler of a web dynpro for Abap application.
Can somebody help me?
Thx in advance.
Hamza.

To clearly specify the problem.
I have a big part code that I use many times in my applications. So I decided to put it in a static method to reuse the code. but my method calls functions module of HR module. but just after the declaration ( at the first line of the call function) it thows an exception. So I can't call my method.

How to call a static method in a class if I have just the object?

Hello. I have an abstract class A where I have a static method blah(). I have 2 classes that extend class A called B and C. In both classes I override method blah(). I have an array with objects of type B and C.
For every instance object of the array, I'm trying to call the static method in the corresponding class. For objects of type B I want to call blah() method in B class and for objects of type C I want to call blah() method in C class. I know it's possible to call a static method with the name of the object, too, but for some reason (?) it calls blah() method in class A if I try this.
So my question is: how do I code this? I guess I need to cast to the class name and then call the method with the class name, but I couldn't do it. I tried to use getClass() method to get the class name and it works, but I didn't know what to do from here...
So any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

As somebody already said, to get the behavior you
want, make the methods non-static.You all asked me why I need that method to be
static... I'm not surprised to hear this question
because I asked all my friends before posting here,
and all of them asked me this... It's because some
complicated reasons, I doubt it.
the application I'm writing is
quite big...Irrelevant.
Umm... So what you're saying is there is no way to do
this with that method being static? The behavior you describe cannot be obtained with only static methods in Java. You'd have to explicitly determine the class and then explicitly call the correct class' method.

Calling a method from a static method

hello all,
I'm calling a non-static method from a static method (from the main method). To overcome this i can make the method i am calling static but is there another way to get this to work without making the method that is being called static?
all replies welcome, thanks

When you call a non-static method, you are saying you are calling a method on an object. The object is an instance of the class in which the method is defined. It is a non-static method, because the instance holds data in it's instance variables that is needed to perform the method. Therefore to call this kind of method, you need to get (or create an instance of the class. Assuming the two methods are in the same class, you could do
public class Foo
     public static void main(String[] args)
            Foo f = new Foo();
            f.callNonStaticMethod();
}for instance.

Calling a non-static method from another Class

Hello forum experts:
Please excuse me for my poor Java vocabulary. I am a newbie and requesting for help. So please bear with me! I am listing below the program flow to enable the experts understand the problem and guide me towards a solution.
1. ClassA instantiates ClassB to create an object instance, say ObjB1 that
    populates a JTable.
2. User selects a row in the table and then clicks a button on the icon toolbar
    which is part of UIMenu class.
3. This user action is to invoke a method UpdateDatabase() of object ObjB1. Now I want to call this method from UIMenu class.
(a). I could create a new instance ObjB2 of ClassB and call UpdateDatabase(),
                                  == OR ==
(b). I could declare UpdateDatabase() as static and call this method without
     creating a new instance of ClassB.With option (a), I will be looking at two different object instances.The UpdateDatabase() method manipulates
object specific data.
With option (b), if I declare the method as static, the variables used in the method would also have to be static.
The variables, in which case, would not be object specific.
Is there a way or technique in Java that will allow me to reference the UpdateDatabase() method of the existing
object ObjB1 without requiring me to use static variables? In other words, call non-static methods in a static
way?
Any ideas or thoughts will be of tremendous help. Thanks in advance.

Hello Forum:
Danny_From_Tower, Encephalatic: Thank you both for your responses.
Here is what I have done so far. I have a button called "btnAccept" created in the class MyMenu.
and declared as public.
public class MyMenu {
    public JButton btnAccept;
     //Constructor
     public MyMenu()     {
          btnAccept = new JButton("Accept");
}     I instantiate an object for MyMenu class in the main application class MyApp.
public class MyApp {
     private     MyMenu menu;
     //Constructor
     public MyApp(){
          menu = new MyMenu();
     public void openOrder(){
           MyGUI MyIntFrame = new MyGUI(menu.btnAccept);
}I pass this button all the way down to the class detail02. Now I want to set up a listener for this
button in the class detail02. I am not able to do this.
public class MyGUI {
     private JButton acceptButton;
     private detail02 dtl1 = new detail02(acceptButton);
     //Constructor
     public AppGUI(JButton iButton){
     acceptButton = iButton;
public class detail02{
    private JButton acceptButton;
    //Constructor
    public detail02(JButton iButton){
      acceptButton = iButton;
      acceptButton.addActionListener(new acceptListener());
   //method
    private void acceptListener_actionPerformed(ActionEvent e){
       System.out.println("Menu item [" + e.getActionCommand( ) + "] was pressed.");
    class acceptListener implements ActionListener {
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
               acceptListener_actionPerformed(e);
} I am not able to get the button Listener to work. I get NullPointerException at this line
          acceptButton.addActionListener(new acceptListener());in the class detail02.
Is this the right way? Or is there a better way of accomplishing my objective?
Please help. Your inputs are precious! Thank you very much for your time!

Calling a static method from another class

public class Command
    public static void sortCommands(String command, String order, List object)
         if(command.equalsIgnoreCase("merge") && order == "a")
              object.setAscending(true);
              Mergesort.mergesort(object.list);                  // line 85
}and
public class Mergesort
     public static void mergesort (int[] a)
          mergesort(a, 0, a.length-1);
     private static void mergesort (int[] a, int l, int r)
     private static void merge (int[] a, int l, int m, int r)
}Error:
Command.java:85: cannot find symbol
symbol : variable Mergesort
location: class Command
Mergesort.mergesort(object.list)
What am I doing wrong here? Within the Command class I am calling mergesort(), a static method, from a static method. I use the dot operator + object so that the compiler would recognize the 'list' array. I tried using the
Mergesort.mergesort(object.list);notation in hopes that it would work like this:
Class.staticMethod(parameters);but either I am mistaken, misunderstood the documentation or both. Mergesort is not a variable. Any help would be appreciated, I have been hitting a brick wall for hours with Java documentation. Thanks all.

[Javapedia: Classpath|http://wiki.java.net/bin/view/Javapedia/ClassPath]
[How Classes are Found|http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/tooldocs/findingclasses.html]
[Setting the class path (Windows)|http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/tooldocs/windows/classpath.html]
[Setting the class path (Solaris/Linux)|http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/tooldocs/solaris/classpath.html]
[Understanding the Java ClassLoader|http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/edu/j-dw-javaclass-i.html]
java -cp .;<any other directories or jars> YourClassNameYou get a NoClassDefFoundError message because the JVM (Java Virtual Machine) can't find your class. The way to remedy this is to ensure that your class is included in the classpath. The example assumes that you are in the same directory as the class you're trying to run.
javac -classpath .;<any additional jar files or directories> YourClassName.javaYou get a "cannot resolve symbol" message because the compiler can't find your class. The way to remedy this is to ensure that your class is included in the classpath. The example assumes that you are in the same directory as the class you're trying to run.

Calling a java static method from javascript

I am running into issue while calling a java static method with a parameter from javascript. I am getting the following error. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thx
An error occurred at line: 103 in the jsp file: /jnlpLaunch.jsp
pfProjectId cannot be resolved to a variable
=================================================
// Java static method with one parameter
<%!
public static void CreateJnlpFile(String pfProjectId)
%>
//Script that calls java static method
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
var pfProjectId = "proj1057";
// Here I am calling java method
<%CreateJnlpFile(pfProjectId);%>
</script>
===================================================
Edited by: 878645 on Mar 6, 2012 11:30 PM

Thanks, Got what you are telling. Right now I have one jsp file which is setting the parameter 'pfProjectId' and in another .jsp I am retrieving it. But I am getting null valuue
for the variable. I am wondering why I am getting null value in the second jsp page?.
Thx
====================================================================
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
// Setting parameter pfProjectId
var pfProjectId = "proj1057";
request.setParameter("pfProjectId", "pfProjectId");
</script>
// Using Button post to call a .jsp that creates jnlp file
<form method=post action="CreateJnlpFile.jsp">
<input type="submit" value="Create JNLP File">
</form>
//Contents of second .jsp file CreateJNLPFile.jsp
String pfProjectId = request.getParameter("pfProjectId ");
System.out.println( "In CreateJnlpFile.jsp pfProjectId " + pfProjectId );
=======================================================

Redefine static method?

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