What are static factory methods?

Question

What\'s a \"static factory\" method?

Answer 1

• have names, unlike constructors, which can clarify code.
• do not need to create a new object upon each invocation - objects can be cached and reused, if necessary.
• can return a subtype of their return type - in particular, can return an object whose implementation class is unknown to the caller. This is a very valuable and widely used feature in many frameworks which use interfaces as the return type of static factory methods.

fromhttp://www.javapractices.com/topic/TopicAction.do?Id=21