Static Methods in interfaces

This lesson explains static methods in interfaces and why they were introduced in Java 8.

We'll cover the following

What are static methods in interfaces?

The static methods in interfaces are similar to default methods but the only difference is that you can’t override them. Now, why do we need static methods in interfaces if we already have default methods?

Suppose you want to provide some implementation in your interface and you don’t want this implementation to be overridden in the implementing class, then you can declare the method as static.

In the below example, we will defined a Vehicle interface with a static method called cleanVehicle().

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public interface Vehicle {



    static void cleanVehicle(){

        System.out.println("I am cleaning vehicle");

    }

}

Let us declare a class Car, which implements this Vehicle interface.

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Car.java
Vehicle.java
public class Car implements Vehicle {

    

    @Override

    public void cleanVehicle() {

        System.out.println("Cleaning the vehicle");

    }



    public static void main(String args[]) {

        Car car = new Car();

        car.cleanVehicle();



    }

}

In the above interface, we get a compilation error in the Car class because a static method cannot be overridden. Also, since a static method is hidden, we can’t call it from the object of the implementing class. The below code will also not compile.

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Car.java
Vehicle.java
public class Car implements Vehicle {

    

    public static void main(String args[]){

        Car car = new Car();

        

        car.cleanVehicle();  //This will not compile.

        

    }

}

The below class will compile because we are calling the static method that is defined in the interface from the interface reference.

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Vehicle.java
Car.java
public class Car implements Vehicle {

    

    public static void main(String args[]){

        Car car = new Car();

        

        Vehicle.cleanVehicle(); //This will compile.

    }

}
Q

What is a default method?

A)

A method that is marked with @Default annotation.

B)

A method that cannot be overridden in sub-classes.

C)

A method that has the implementation inside the interface.

D)

None of the above.

In the next lesson, we will explore functional interfaces.