Static Attributes and Methods

Static Attributes and Methods
An Introduction with Examples in Java

Prof. David Bernstein
James Madison University

Computer Science Department

bernstdh@jmu.edu

static Attributes

Definition:
- Attributes that belong to a class rather than instances of a class
Implication:
- They can be used without instantiating an object
Common Uses:
- Constants, flags, special values, etc...

static Methods

Utility Class

Some Useful static Attributes

In the Integer Class:
- MIN_VALUE
- MAX_VALUE
In the Double Class:
- NEGATIVE_INFINITY
- POSITIVE_INFINITY
- MIN_VALUE
- MAX_VALUE
In the Math Class:
- E (base of the natural log)
- PI

Some Useful static Methods

More Useful static Methods

Some Things You Can Now Think About

main():
- Why is main() static?
System.in and System.out:
- What are they?
- What "kind of thing" is printf()?