Overriding and hiding a method.. the difference?

Question

hello,
the text says that "...a subclass cannot override methods that are declared static in the superclass. In other words, a subclass cannot override a class method. A subclass can hide a static method in the superclass by declaring a static method in the subclass with the same signature as the static method in the superclass"
what does this mean? i don't see the difference between this overriding and hiding of the methods? is it just the concepts??
what's the difference when i have a non-static method in the superclass overridden by a non-static method in the sub class and when i have a static method hidden by a static method in the subclass?

Answer 1

over-riding means that you declare an implemenation of some method on the current class that over-rides the implemenation inherieted from your superclass. Over-riding the toString method to print customer data would be a good example- the implemenation on the current class will be invoked, instead of the superclass. Because static methods are bound to a class, rather then instance, they can not be over-ridden. Instead, you can only replace that method with a method of same signature and name. Maybe this code makes it more clear:
Object arg = MyClass.getInstance();
//the implemenation of MyClass.toString will be
//invoked if it is over-ridden, even though Object.toString
//is being referenced
arg.toString();But, static methods, like Class.method() and SubClass.method(), have no inherieted functionality- they are totally unique methods that simply share the same name. I'm not sure if this explanation makes it clear or not, but the operative point is, there's no functional relationship between static methods.