public static final variable in an imported java class

Question

I happen to come across a Java code at my work place. Here\'s the scenario: There are 2 classes - ClassA and ClassB.

ClassA ha

Answer 1

Suppose ClassA looks like this:

public class ClassA {
    public static final int FOO = 1;
    public static final int BAR = 2;
}

If you recompile it, ClassB will continue using the old values. I guess it could depend on the compiler, but I think this is the typical behaviour. If you don't want to recompile ClassB everytime a constant in ClassA changes, you'll have to do something like this:

public class ClassA {
    public static final int FOO = CONST(1);
    public static final int BAR = CONST(2);

    public static int CONST(int i) { return i; }
}

Becuase now javac is unwilling to inline the constants. Instead it will call the CONST(int) method when ClassA's static initializer runs.