why are java constants declared static?

If a constant is not static, Java will allocate a memory for that constant in every object of the class (i.e., one copy of the constant per object).

If a constant is static, there will be only one copy of the constant for that class (i.e., one copy per class).

Therefore, if the constant has only one value, it should declared static.

If the constant might have different value for each object, for example the creation time of the object, it should not be declared static.


If it could vary by the instance of a class, then it's clearly not a constant. What would it mean to get a different value of pi for each instance of Math (not that Math even allows instances to be constructed)? Or a different case insensitive ordering for each instance of String?

Tags:

Java

Static

Constants

Class Variables

Final

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