Why can't static methods be abstract in Java?

Question

The question is in Java why can\'t I define an abstract static method? for example

abstract class foo {
    abstract void bar( ); // <-- this is ok
    ab         


        

Answer 1

• An abstract method is defined only so that it can be overridden in a subclass. However, static methods can not be overridden. Therefore, it is a compile-time error to have an abstract, static method.

  Now the next question is why static methods can not be overridden??

• It's because static methods belongs to a particular class and not to its instance. If you try to override a static method you will not get any compilation or runtime error but compiler would just hide the static method of superclass.