Why should the static field be accessed in a static way?

by

Because when you access a static field, you should do so on the class (or in this case the enum). As in

MyUnits.MILLISECONDS;

Not on an instance as in

m.MILLISECONDS;

Edit To address the question of why: In Java, when you declare something as static, you are saying that it is a member of the class, not the object (hence why there is only one). Therefore it doesn’t make sense to access it on the object, because that particular data member is associated with the class.

More Related Contents:

  1. Why is a non-static variable not able to be referenced from a static context?
  2. JAVA- JFrame- non static method cannot be referenced from a static context [duplicate]
  3. Use of Private static
  4. Mocking static methods with Mockito
  5. Why doesn’t Java allow overriding of static methods?
  6. Are static methods inherited in Java?
  7. In laymans terms, what does ‘static’ mean in Java? [duplicate]
  8. What is the exact meaning of static fields in Java?
  9. How come invoking a (static) method on a null reference doesn’t throw NullPointerException?
  10. Volatile vs Static in Java
  11. Why would a static nested interface be used in Java?
  12. When are static variables initialized?
  13. Static nested class in Java, why?
  14. Java Static vs Instance
  15. Behaviour of final static method
  16. Static fields on a null reference in Java
  17. Static versus non-static lock object in synchronized block
  18. List of useful environment settings in Java
  19. Is calling static methods via an object “bad form”? Why?
  20. Getting value of public static final field/property of a class in Java via reflection
  21. Calling static generic methods
  22. Are non-synchronised static methods thread safe if they don’t modify static class variables?
  23. Is it OK to use Gson instance as a static field in a model bean (reuse)?
  24. Thread safety of static blocks in Java
  25. Does the garbage collector work on static variables or methods in java?
  26. What is the equivalent of Java static methods in Kotlin?
  27. When does static initialization happen?
  28. Creation of Objects: Constructors or Static Factory Methods
  29. Public static variables and Android activity life cycle management
  30. Static variables and multithreading in java

Leave a Comment