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

I see that there are a god-zillion answers already but I don't see any practical solutions. Of course this is a real problem and there is no good reason for excluding this syntax in Java. Since the original question lacks a context where this may be need, I provide both a context and a solution:

Suppose you have a static method in a bunch of classes that are identical. These methods call a static method that is class specific:

class C1 {
    static void doWork() {
        ...
        for (int k: list)
            doMoreWork(k);
        ...
    }
    private static void doMoreWork(int k) {
        // code specific to class C1
    }
}
class C2 {
    static void doWork() {
        ...
        for (int k: list)
            doMoreWork(k);
        ...
    }
    private static void doMoreWork(int k) {
        // code specific to class C2
    }
}

doWork() methods in C1 and C2 are identical. There may be a lot of these calsses: C3 C4 etc. If static abstract was allowed, you'd eliminate the duplicate code by doing something like:

abstract class C {
    static void doWork() {
        ...
        for (int k: list)
            doMoreWork(k);
        ...
    }

    static abstract void doMoreWork(int k);
}

class C1 extends C {
    private static void doMoreWork(int k) {
        // code for class C1
    }
}

class C2 extends C {
    private static void doMoreWork(int k) {
        // code for class C2
    }
}

but this would not compile because static abstract combination is not allowed. However, this can be circumvented with static class construct, which is allowed:

abstract class C {
    void doWork() {
        ...
        for (int k: list)
            doMoreWork(k);
        ...
    }
    abstract void doMoreWork(int k);
}
class C1 {
    private static final C c = new  C(){  
        @Override void doMoreWork(int k) {
            System.out.println("code for C1");
        }
    };
    public static void doWork() {
        c.doWork();
    }
}
class C2 {
    private static final C c = new C() {
        @Override void doMoreWork(int k) {
            System.out.println("code for C2");
        }
    };
    public static void doWork() {
        c.doWork();
    }
}

With this solution the only code that is duplicated is

    public static void doWork() {
        c.doWork();
    }