You cannot have static variables declared inside a method

Byron KiourtzoglouNovember 11th, 2012Last Updated: July 1st, 2013

0 49 1 minute read

In this example we shall show you the reason why you cannot have static variables declared inside a method. The steps of the example are described below:

We have a class, StaticVar that consists of a process() method, where it sets a static int variable and prints it.
We make a new instance of the StaticVar in a main() method and call its process() method.
A java.lang.Error occurs, and the unresolved compilation problem is that the static modifier is not permitted,

as described in the code snippet below.

package futuretest;

public class StaticVar {
    
  public static void main(String[] argv) {
    StaticVar t = new StaticVar();
    t.process();
  }
  
  void process() {
    static int a = 42;
// EXPECT COMPILE ERROR
    System.out.println("Process: " + a);
  }
}

This was an example of explaining why you cannot have static variables declared inside a method in Java.