Why can't I define a static method in a Java interface?

Question

EDIT: As of Java 8, static methods are now allowed in interfaces.

Here\'s the example:

public interface IXMLizable         


        

Answer 1

You can't define static methods in an interface because static methods belongs to a class not to an instance of class, and interfaces are not Classes. Read more here.

However, If you want you can do this:

public class A {
  public static void methodX() {
  }
}

public class B extends A {
  public static void methodX() {
  }
}

In this case what you have is two classes with 2 distinct static methods called methodX().