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

Absolutely not. Consider:

class Point {
    public final int x;
    public final int y;

    public Point(int _x, int _y) {
        x = _x;
        y = _y;
    }
}

Drop the final, and the class becomes mutable. Add a static, and all your points are the same, and there is no legal way to write the constructor.