What is the purpose of a static method in interface from Java 8?

Question

Why are static methods supported from Java 8? What is the difference between the two lines in main method in below code?

package sample;
public class A {
    pub         


        

Answer 1

In the past, if you had an interface Foo and wanted to group interface-related utils or factory methods, you would need to create a separate utils class FooUtils and store everything there.

Those classes would not have anything in common other than the name, and additionally, the utils class would need to be made final and have a private constructor to forbid unwanted usage.

Now, thanks to the interface static methods, you can keep everything in one place without creating any additional classes.

It's also important to not forget all good practices and not throw everything mindlessly to one interface class - as pointed out in this answer