What are static factory methods?

Question

What\'s a \"static factory\" method?

Answer 1

One of the advantages of the static factory methods with private constructor(object creation must have been restricted for external classes to ensure instances are not created externally) is that you can create instance-controlled classes. And instance-controlled classes guarantee that no two equal distinct instances exist(a.equals(b) if and only if a==b) during your program is running that means you can check equality of objects with == operator instead of equals method, according to Effective java.

The ability of static factory methods to return the same object from repeated invocations allows classes to maintain strict control over what instances exist at any time. Classes that do this are said to be instance-controlled. There are several reasons to write instance-controlled classes. Instance control allows a class to guarantee that it is a singleton (Item 3) or noninstantiable (Item 4). Also, it allows an immutable class (Item 15) to make the guarantee that no two equal instances exist: a.equals(b) if and only if a==b. If a class makes this guarantee, then its clients can use the == operator instead of the equals(Object) method, which may result in improved performance. Enum types (Item 30) provide this guarantee.

From Effective Java, Joshua Bloch(Item 1,page 6)