Should a java class' final fields always be static?

Question

I could not find any references online about this. But just wanted to know if final fields in a class should always be static or is it just a convention. Based

Answer 1

They don't always come together and it's not a convention. final fields are often used to create immutable types:

class Person {

    private final String name;
    private final int age;

    public Person(String name, int age) {
        this.name = name;
        this.age = age;
    }

    public String getName() {
        return name;
    }

    public int getAge() {
        return age;
    }

}

On the other hand static but not final fields are not that common and are quite tricky. static final is seen often because it means application¹-wide constant.

^{1 - well, class loader-wide, to be precise}