Interview program on static method in Java

In this article, we will see sample program involving static method

What will be output of following program ?

package in.bench.resources.interview;

public class DemoStatic {

	// sample static method
	private static void staticMethod() {
		System.out.println("This is static-method with"
				+ " name staticMethod();");
	}

	// main() - entry point to JVM execution
	public static void main(String[] args) {

		DemoStatic ds = null;
		ds.staticMethod();
	}
}

Output:

This is static-method with name staticMethod();

Explanation:

• We are invoking static-method with reference-variable which is assigned to null
• Not even created object using new operator at line 14
• So, one might think that, during execution of program it will throw NullPointerException
• But program displays correct output without error during  runtime/execution
• Reason : because to invoke static-method, we don’t require actual instantiated object
• Instead static-method can be invoked with class-name like <Class-Name>.<static-method>
• Sometimes, uninitialized reference-variable is enough to call/invoke static-method, as shown in the above program
• Actually while calling/invoking static-method with reference-variable, Compiler warns with message “The static method <static-method-name()>  from the type DemoStatic should be accessed in a static way“, as shown in the below screen-capture
• Correct-way to invoke static-method is,
  1. <Class-Name>.<static-method> (most preferred)
  2. <reference-variable>.<static-method>

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