Question

I went through local variables and class variables concept.

But I had stuck at a doubt
” Why is it so that we cannot declare local variables as static ” ?

For e.g
Suppose we have a play( ) function :

void play( )  
{  
  static int i=5;  
  System.out.println(i);  
}

It gives me error in eclipse : Illegal modifier for parameter i;

I had this doubt because of the following concepts I have read :

1. Variables inside method : scope is local i.e within that method.
2. When variable is declared as static , it is present for the entire class i.e not to particular object.

Please could anyone help me out to clarify the concept.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Because the scope of the local variables is limited to the surrounding block. That’s why they cannot be referred to (neither statically, nor non-statically), from other classes or methods.

Wikipedia says about static local variables (in C++ for example):

Static local variables are declared inside a function, just like automatic local variables. They have the same scope as normal local variables, differing only in “storage duration”: whatever values the function puts into static local variables during one call will still be present when the function is called again.

That doesn’t exist in Java. And in my opinion – for the better.