Using static methods.

Question

Hi,
I have few class variables like socket, and boolean datatypes in a class.
This class is intantiated in lot of place and everytime the new instance is created the variables are re-initialized to their original values.
I dont want variables values to change everytime an instance is created. So should i declare them static? if i do so is there any precaution or cautions i should look out for?
Thank you.

Answer 1

Thank for the reply here is the code.
public class ServerComm{
//class variables.
          private  boolean connValid = false;
      private  Socket  cvwSock;
      //Open the connection to the CVW server.
     public void openConnection() {
          try {
               cvwSock = new Socket(InetAddress.getByName(host), iport);
               boolean isConnect = cvwSock.isConnected();
               System.out.println("ServerComm,openconnection2:got socket conn: "
                         + cvwSock);
               connValid = true;
          catch (Exception v) {
               connValid = false;
                    System.out
                              .println("servercomm,openconnection3:You are trying to connect to CVW server with name: "
                                        + host + " Unknown CVW Server");
               else
                    v.printStackTrace();
               System.exit(1);
               return;
      * Sends a command to the CVW server if the connection is valid.
     public void sendCmdToServer(String cmd) {
//connection valid become false  with new instance of class so returns
                if (!connValid)
               return;
          if (idleState) {
               idleState = false;
          ByteArrayOutputStream bs = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
          PrintStream ps = new PrintStream(bs);
          ps.println(cmd);
          ps.flush();
          // opening a streams to send message to cvw server
          try {
//cvwsock is initialized to null with new instance of class
               cvwSock.getOutputStream().write(bs.toByteArray());
               cvwSock.getOutputStream().flush();
catch (Exception v) {
               System.out.println("ServerComm: Error opening Stream: " + v);
//Anothe class
public class SomeClass{
ServerComm server= new ServerComm()//creating instance of the above class
//some expressions
server.sendCmdToServer(command); //connValid in ServerComm is initialized to false again. to doesnt send command but returns
}.In the above code in SomeClass when intantiated the connValid variable is reinitialized to false and hence it returns when called server.sendCmdToServer(command). while the openConnection() is succesfull called from another class