Difference between Static and final?

Question

I\'m always confused between static and final keywords in java.

How are they different ?

Answer 1

Static is something that any object in a class can call, that inherently belongs to an object type.

A variable can be final for an entire class, and that simply means it cannot be changed anymore. It can only be set once, and trying to set it again will result in an error being thrown. It is useful for a number of reasons, perhaps you want to declare a constant, that can't be changed.

Some example code:

class someClass
{
   public static int count=0;
   public final String mName;

   someClass(String name)
   {
     mname=name;
     count=count+1;
   }

  public static void main(String args[])
  {
    someClass obj1=new someClass("obj1");
    System.out.println("count="+count+" name="+obj1.mName);
    someClass obj2=new someClass("obj2");
    System.out.println("count="+count+" name="+obj2.mName);
  }
}

Wikipedia contains the complete list of java keywords.